MARTINEZ — After dying countless times, spending two months in a coma, and re-learning how to live, John Russo was finally able to talk to the young woman who orchestrated the home invasion at her sentencing on Friday.

The sentencing held at the Justice Wakefield Taylor Courthouse in Martinez on Friday was for Franceska Kabasinskas, 18, who was charged with first degree robbery for instigating a 2015 home invasion and the savage beating of John and Ann Russo that left them permanently changed.

“You know this all started with you,” John Russo said to Kabasinskas in court. “I will never be the same. I tell people that if I’m 80 percent, I can live with that.”

Brentwood police say Kabasinskas admitted to lying about her ex-boyfriend, Johnathan Russo, raping her to her then-boyfriend, Eliseo Sumale.

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Brentwood police arrest juvenile in connection with home invasion, baseball bat attack Eliseo Sumale, who was on house arrest for a prior conviction, recruited his older brother, Moises Sumale, Usiel Beltran and Jevonie Rogers to break into the home on July 22, 2015, which happened to be Ann and John’s 22nd wedding anniversary.

At 3 a.m., the group arrived at the Russo’s home in Brentwood and saw Johnathan Russo leaving for a paper route, but decided to break in anyways. Moises Sumale, Usiel Beltran and Jevonie Rogers donned masks and broke through the rear glass door after mistaking a cardboard cutout of Jerry Garcia as a person.

They beat Ann Russo in the head with a baseball bat first, then later moved to John. After the assault, Ann crawled over to John and called 911. Both of John’s eye sockets were broken, his nose was broken and his jaw had to be reattached. John was in a coma for 61 days before he awoke.

He was told that he had broken John Muir Medical Center’s record for most pumps placed in a person to keep him alive. He had asked nursing staff there how many times he died and one responded that they had lost count. John said that the doctor overseeing his care had said to unplug him, but he woke up.

“I had to learn how to walk again. I barely had a second grade English and math level and it was very hard to get back to where I was,” John Russo said in court. “They don’t know why I’m alive. They wanted to pull the plug, but thank God I had good insurance. It cost me $5 million for me to be alive.”

Ann was released from the hospital, but had to return a year later when her brain began swelling from the traumatic injuries. The returned to the hospital two more times in 2016, then twice in 2017 for a heart attack, kidney failure and more.

“I will never be able to play piano like I used to,” Ann wrote in a statement read before the court. “You should be put away for life and suffer like we suffered.”

Ann requested a stronger sentence for Kabasinskas, but since she was a minor when she committed the crime of first degree robbery, she can only be held until the age of 23, at most.

Kabasinskas read a prepared statement in court, saying she wanted to offer her sincerest apology and that “everyone who has been affected by this is a victim.”

“I reacted on my impulses and emotions and not once did I think of the impact on the Russo family,” Kabasinskas read. “… It can never be forgotten, but in time, it can be forgiven.”

Kabasinskas said that she has been incarcerated for 21 months and has been working on rehabilitating herself to reenter society. She plans to continue pursuing a future in the armed forces or will seek a nursing license. A felony waiver would be required for Kabasinskas to join the armed forces, according to Army.com.

“In juvenile court, she could be out in a year, but I think she’s served her time already,” said Franceska’s father Richard Kabasinskas, who alleged misconduct by investigators and argued that the punishment was too severe.

Judge Rebecca Hardie said that the sentence “made (her) sick” and that juvenile court was a gift to Kabasinskas that she didn’t deserve.

“This wasn’t a group of kids. It was calculated, planned in detail,” Hardie said. “… It’s appalling and it’s depravity at its very worst. It’s a gift to you to be in juvenile court.”

Eliseo Sumale and Jevonie Rogers also pleaded guilty to first degree robbery and were sentenced to juvenile court. Moises Sumale and Usiel Beltran were adults at the time of the crime and were sentenced to 15 years each for the crime and have already been transferred to San Quentin State Prison.

Kabasinskas and the other two juveniles are eligible for parole on the discretion of the Department of Juvenile Justice and could potentially serve shorter sentences. All five have admitted their roles in the crime.