MANCHESTER, NH – Tyler Cook, who pleaded guilty in the New Year’s Eve 2023 shooting death of his girlfriend, was sentenced Monday to 16 years in the New Hampshire State Prison for Men.
Cook, 27, formerly of 274 Amherst St., pleaded guilty last month to manslaughter in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District to shooting Sophia Bonfiglio, 26, in their apartment, killing her.
Cook will be eligible for parole in 2031.
Judge Amy Messer, in sentencing Cook, concluded there was evidence of tumult and tension surrounding the shooting and uncontradicted evidence showed that Cook had his finger on the trigger of a loaded firearm when it discharged, killing Bonfiglio.
Cook’s sentencing was attended by friends and numerous members of Bonfligio’s family, many of whom addressed Judge Messer.
The shooting happened at the couple’s Amherst Street apartment. Bonfiglio was taken to the Elliot Hospital but died 2 ½ hours later during surgery, according to court documents.
Cook had entered a negotiated capped plea that called for a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of 20 years in prison.
He is eligible to have up to three years suspended for completion of programs in domestic violence, mental health and work readiness.
Cook also must pay $14,905 to the victim’s compensation fund and/or Bonfiglio’s family.
Cook was charged with acting recklessly “when, while in control of a firearm, a firearm was discharged killing S.B.” The charge carried a maximum sentence of 30 years.
According to court documents, two neighbors told police that from May through December “they heard arguing and banging coming from the defendant and deceased’s apartment” and called 911 several times.
Bonfiglio and Cook were planning to move to Cape Cod to live with her father and were packing up the day of the shooting. Bonfiglio had recently lost her job while Cook, who had worked for a landscaping company, was unemployed given an end to seasonal employment, according to the defense.
“She was a very beautiful young lady,” said Paul Bonfiglio of his daughter, after a court hearing earlier this year. “She was just about to move home and go to RN school.”
Bonfiglio had worked at Dan O’Brian Kia but the company was sold.
“She didn’t like the way the company was structured. She had just lost her mother three months ago so we decided why don’t you come home, attend RN school and become a nurse,” he said.
She had been a CNA (certified nursing assistant) for a while, he said, and thought it was a good time to make the change.
According to the defense’s sentencing memorandum, Cook was born in Hyannis, Mass., and lived the majority of his life between the Bay State and New Hampshire, moving back and forth as his younger brother had a number of behavioral issues requiring services as he grew up.
Cook was one of four children raised by his mother who left his father shortly before he was born due to a physically abusive relationship.
His father, Kenneth Ellis, 52, of Hyannis, Mass., was schizophrenic and had substance abuse issues. He was shot and killed by a Fryeburg, Maine, officer on Feb. 1, 2024 after a police chase. Ellis had led police on a chase from Conway to Freyeburg, Maine, after driving erratically. He was shot and killed after he got out of his pickup truck and started running, while holding a knife, toward a Fryeburg police officer.
The Maine attorney general ruled the killing as a justified homicide.
The day of Bonfiglio’s death, Cook, who the defense described as an inexperienced gun owner, was holding the firearm in Bonfiglio’s direction while attempting to unload it. In the process of racking the slide, the firearm discharged and Bonfligio was struck in the left side of her torso.
Cook dialed 911 and rendered aid to his girlfriend until authorities arrived.
Bonfligio was taken by ambulance to the Elliot Hospital. She was stabilized for a time before she died during surgery.
“Tyler’s actions to sustain Sofia’s life show that this was a tragedy born of a reckless conduct and nothing more,” defense attorney Leif A. Becker wrote in his sentencing memorandum.
The state, in its sentencing recommendation, said the gun used in Bonfiglio’s death was evaluated by Jill Theriault, a firearms expert at the New Hampshire State Forensic Laboratory. It was found to be in good working order, with multiple safety features that would “have rendered it incapable of discharging a round, absent the trigger being depressed,” according to state prosecutor Patrick J. Ives.
Among other features, a trigger lock would prevent the firing pin from contacting a chambered round. The only means to move the trigger lock out of the way would be to pull back on the trigger.
“There was no debris or mechanical defect in the gun that would make it capable of discharging a round without the firing pin striking the round,” Ives wrote. “Theriault has unequivocally refuted the possibility of the gun discharging under the circumstances described by the Defendant, wherein he claimed the gun discharged by manipulating the slide with his finger off the trigger. “
Additionally, Ives wrote, when it was recovered by the Manchester Police Department, a round was present in the chamber of the firearm. There are only two mechanical possibilities to explain the presence of this round, the prosecutor said: (1) the defendant reloaded a round after the shooting by racking the slide after putting a loaded magazine back into the gun—which he does not claim to have done, and would be entirely incongruous with his stated purpose of making the gun safe and ready to be surrendered to the police; or (2) a loaded magazine was present in the firearm at the time the gun was fired, and a round was automatically rechambered after the gun was fired.
“The credible evidence establishes that the defendant had his finger on the trigger of a loaded firearm when he depressed the trigger, moving the trigger guard, engaging the firing pin, and sending a bullet into the body of his nearby girlfriend,” Ives wrote. “The firearm then automatically reloaded a round into the chamber, at which point the Defendant began attending to Sophia.”
The couple had to move out of their apartment by Dec. 31, 2023, the day of the shooting. Cook slept in that day until 1:30 p.m. causing tension between him and Sophia.
In the months and weeks that led up to the shooting, neighbors heard, and family observed, evidence of tumult inside their Amherst Street apartment.
Sarah McNamara, a neighbor since May 2023, told police the couple in 274 Amherst St. were always arguing, and that she called 911 to report it. Shortly after moving in, she heard a male voice say words to the effect of “I’m going to fucking kill you, you bitch.” She also observed a man and woman arguing by the woman’s blue SUV. McNamara believed the altercations got violent as she could hear banging noises in the apartment.
She last heard them arguing at 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 31, 2023, about 12 ½ hours before the shooting.
Another neighbor, Albert Valcourt, corroborated McNamara’s statements. He told police over the past months he heard shouting and swearing coming from the Cook’s apartment. On some occasions, he said he heard a loud dull thumping noise, which he said sounded like a head hitting furniture, a muffled gunshot, or a snare drum.
Paul Bonfiglio, Sofia’s father, told police two days before the shooting he was at the apartment and saw a door with two panels that appeared to be smashed in.
Sophia, he said, “hushed” him when he inquired about the damaged panels.
That day he noted the bedroom door was undamaged but, after the shooting, it had significant damage.
This evidence bears on the degree to which the Defendant consciously disregarded the risk associated with his use of his handgun—that is, whether he thought to himself ‘it does not matter to me whether the way I am interacting with this firearm will put Sophia in harm’s way.’ Months of arguments—right up until the early morning hours before the shooting—with banging noises and property damage present a historical context for the Defendant’s reckless disregard for Sophia safety, generally,” Ives wrote. “This reckless disregard is then made plain when, needing to pack up and leave the apartment, the Defendant woke up at 1:30 p.m. contributing to the tense environment where he ended up placing his finger on the trigger of a loaded firearm that was pointed at Sophia.”