The woman accused of fatally shoving Broadway vocal coach Barbara Maier Gustern last year was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison and five years post-release supervision, the Manhattan district attorney said Friday.
Lauren Pazienza, 26, of Port Jefferson pleaded guilty last month to one count of first-degree manslaughter, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office.
“Barbara Gustern’s sudden, violent death at the hands of Lauren Pazienza left a family and community in mourning,” Bragg wrote in a statement Friday. “There is nothing that can bring her back, but I hope that the resolution of these proceedings can provide some sense of closure amid her loved ones’ ongoing grief.”
According to prosecutors, Pazienza encountered Gustern, 87, after leaving Chelsea Park in Manhattan around 8:30 p.m. on March 10, 2022.
She yelled obscenities at the elder woman and then intentionally shoved her to the ground before walking away, prosecutors said.
Authorities said Gustern fell and hit her head on the pavement and suffered a massive hemorrhage on the left side of her brain. She lost consciousness and died on March 15, 2022, authorities said.
Pazienza deleted her social media accounts and fled to her parents’ home on Long Island after Gustern’s death, prosecutors said. She turned herself into police on March 22, 2022, according to authorities.