Judge Adds Six Months To Eight-Year Prison Sentence For Woman Who Fatally Shoved Beloved NYC Vocal Coach Barbara Gustern

deadline.com:

UPDATE: Lauren Pazienza, the event planner who fatally shoved the 87-year-old Broadway vocal coach Barbara Gustern to the ground in a random 2022 attack, was officially sentenced to eight and a half years in prison Friday.

Pazienza had pleaded guilty to manslaughter in August in a plea deal for eight years in prison. The six months was added on Friday by Manhattan state Supreme Court Judge Felicia Mennin, who, according to reports, said she was unconvinced that the 28-year-old Pazienza had taken responsibility for her actions. PREVIOUS, August 23: Lauren Pazienza, who deliberately and randomly shoved 87-year-old Broadway vocal coach Barbara Gustern to the ground on a Manhattan sidewalk in 2022 causing the elderly woman’s death, changed her plea from not guilty to guilty and will be sentenced to eight years in state prison.

The plea deal was announced today by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. “Lauren Pazienza aggressively shoved Barbara Gustern to the ground and walked away as the beloved New Yorker lay there bleeding,” Bragg said in a statement. “Today’s plea holds Pazienza accountable for her deadly actions.

We continue to mourn the loss of Barbara Gustern, a talented musical theater performer and vocal coach who touched so many in New York City and beyond.” In addition to the eight years in prison, the 27-year-old Pazienza, a former events coordinator, received five years of post-release supervision for the shoving that occurred near Gustern’s apartment building in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood,.