A woman who killed an 87-year-old Broadway vocal coach by pushing her to the ground in New York City pleaded guilty Wednesday and will be sentenced to eight years in prison, the district attorney said.
Lauren Pazienza, now 28, shoved Barbara Maier Gustern to the ground from behind in the Chelsea neighborhood on March 10, 2022, officials said at the time.
Lauren Pazienza is a 28-year-old Long Island resident who was accused of fatally shoving 87-year-old vocal coach Barbara Gustern in Chelsea, New York City in March 2022[1].
Pazienza pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and assault in the death of Gustern and was described by prosecutors as having a tantrum before pushing the voice coach[2]. In August 2023, Pazienza pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 8 years in prison[3][4][5].
Pazienza grew up in an idyllic part of Long Island, where her dad Daniel runs a successful business in Holtsville that has previously been ranked the No. 1 cesspool company in Suffolk County for service and price[1]. She attended Ward Melville High School in nearby Setauket with her future fiancé, now a Microsoft employee[1].
Pazienza was seen gallivanting around town, attending swanky clubs and art gallery openings, but neighbors at the upscale Astoria condo where she lived with her boyfriend said she wasn’t all smiles at home[1]. Law enforcement sources say that Pazienza was a known nuisance in the Shore Towers, and had previously called the cops on her neighbors[1][6].
What does calling the cops on neighbors have to do with a manslaughter trial though. There can be people who have a legitimate reason to do that, and then there's those people who are calling the cops every other day, but it doesn't specify. It's just kind of comical that that would be used to somehow legitimate a completely unrelated manslaughter conviction.
Pazienza’s fatal shove of the respected coach came during a drunken rampage on a night of celebrating her upcoming nuptials with her fiancé at West 28th Street, prosecutors have said.
The 5-foot-7 Pazienza encountered the 4-foot-11 Gustern after becoming enraged by a Parks Department worker kicking her and her beau out of Chelsea Park — where the pair had been eating dinner — because the green space was closing, according to the DA’s office.
After throwing her food at her lover, Pazienza crossed the street and randomly attacked Gustern — and then coldly walked away as the elderly woman bled from her head, officials said.
“Notice how she didn’t go after some 6-foot-tall, 200-pound guy – she went after my 80-pound grandmother,” Gustern’s grandson said after Wednesday’s hearing.
Following the attack, Pazienza took the subway back to her Astoria home, where she finally disclosed to her fiancé that she had shoved someone hours later.
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After seeing on the news that the beloved vocal coach had died – and spotting herself in surveillance images released by police – Pazienza deleted all of her social media accounts, removed her wedding website and fled to Long Island to stay with family, the DA’s office said.
...
But Pazienza’s attorney, Arthur Aidala, has claimed that Pazienza was so bombed off of a cocktail of wine, weed and prescription drugs that she could not have possibly known what she was doing, or had the required “intent” for the manslaughter charge to stick.
Drugs and alcohol everytime. Where was her finance during this rampage?
Thank you for the Details she going have pay for her consequences. Hopefully she sobers up and cleans up. That lady should have never died that way.
She was known as a socialite around NYC, and grew up well-off in Long Island as the daughter of, believe it or not, the owner of the #1 cesspool company. So yes, the killer is fairly affluent.
This fucking sub-human murdered an innocent woman at random because she was having a temper tantrum after being kicked out of a city park. And she only gets 8 fucking years?
So, if I understand this right, it's mostly OK to kill people at random in NYC? That's the message this extremely light sentence conveys.
It wasn't murder, because it wasn't pre-meditated and she likely didn't intend to kill when she did it. Manslaugher and assault seem the correct charges. I'm not making excuses for her, she deserves jail over this. But all those mitigating factors matter when you compare this case with murder cases that get 20+ years.
It must suck to be a judge, and have to decide that taking some lives are worth more or less than taking others.
I always found the thought alone scary. Imagine losing one year of your life locked up. Everything around you would just 'move past' while you're caged in. Now imagine eight years of your past life and how much happened in that time and what you would have missed.
I don't think any country should have lifelong (timely unlimited) sentences, they're incredibly cruel, maybe worse than death.
She gets to have a life after those 8 years. The woman she killed doesnt. Her family never gets to see her again. She's GONE because of this bitch and there's no bringing her back.
Should the headline not describe her more accurately as "murderer" instead of "woman". Like, why does her gender even matter? The fact that she killed another human being matters a lot more. It should read "A murderer..."
And people have the goddamn gall to argue when I state that our society, and the justice system in particular, heavily favor women. Any guy that did this exact same crime would have gotten 2x the sentence.
Earlier this very week there was that other wacko girl that killed her boyfriend and a friend when she intentionally slammed her SUV into a house at 100 MPH. She murdered 2 people and only got about 15 years in prison.
You might want to edit that again. The rapist Brock Allen Turner goes by just his middle name now. The rapist Allen Turner has been seen partying in Ohio bars and clubs recently. Stay safe ladies of Ohio.
Have you ever heard of Brock Turner, or maybe Johnny Depp? Good luck getting any women to go near you though.
Besides, these sentences are insane in general and modern first world societies (meaning not the US) do not focus on punishing people like we do. They focus on rehabilitation because it's a service to society, because they actually give a shit about their societies. So the fact that anyone can think that fifteen years of being locked in a cage getting angrier and angrier with no psych help and shit for healthcare "isn't enough," really says something about the people who endorse that.