A woman who pleaded guilty to shoving a beloved 87-year-old vocal coach to the ground and causing a fatal brain bleed said she was “profoundly sorry” in a Manhattan courtroom Friday.
Judge Felicia Mennin sentenced Lauren Pazienza, 28, to eight-and-a-half years in prison and five years of post-release supervision on a first-degree manslaughter charge. It was a longer sentence than she had originally promised, because she said Pazienza had tried to minimize her behavior.
“I am really concerned about your apparent inability to take responsibility for your actions,” Mennin said.
Pazienza, dressed in a khaki jacket and pants, sat beside her attorney with her hands cuffed behind her back and her waist-length auburn hair swept to the side. She admitted in court that she pushed vocal coach Barbara Maier Gustern, heard her fall back, heard her moan and did not help her.
More than a dozen of Gustern’s loved ones filled the gallery in raincoats and rain boots, occasionally gasping or sniffling.
On March 10, 2022, Pazienza and her fiancé were celebrating their upcoming wedding when the festivities took a violent turn that ended in Gustern’s death. The couple visited a few art galleries in Chelsea, where Pazienza drank several glasses of wine, according to court papers. Then, prosecutors say, they got food from a street cart and began to eat it in Chelsea Park.
But when a park employee told Pazienza the park was closing soon and she needed to leave, according to prosecutors, she cursed, shouted, threw her food at her fiancé and left the park. Pazienza continued onto 28th Street, where prosecutors say she spotted Barbara Gustern. According to court papers, she ran toward the 4’11” octogenarian who weighed less than 100 pounds, called her a “b---h” and pushed her.
Gustern fell to the ground and hit her head. Prosecutors say Pazienza left Gustern bleeding on the ground just steps from her apartment. A witness called 911, according to court records, and Gustern managed to utter a few details about what happened while waiting for paramedics to arrive, including that she had never been hit so hard in her life. But the vocal coach quickly became incoherent as her brain swelled with blood, prosecutors say, and she died five days later.
Surveillance footage obtained by prosecutors shows Pazienza looking at an ambulance outside Gustern’s apartment building after she shoved her. Later that night, she told her fiancé she had pushed someone and thought the person had fallen.
When the New York Post published an article about Gustern, court records say, Pazienza got “really scared,” confessed to a cousin and then hid out at her parents’ house on Long Island. She also deleted her social media and wedding website and left her cellphone at her aunt’s house, according to the DA’s office.
Police knocked on Pazienza’s parents’ door after the NYPD received an anonymous tip, but her father said she wasn’t there. After that visit, prosecutors say, Pazienza turned herself in.
AJ Maier Gustern, Barbara’s grandson, said in court that he had no sympathy for Pazienza.
“What kind of person pushes a stranger, a celebrated elder?” he said.
Maier Gustern said his grandmother loved life and used to tease that the only thing that could stop her would be a bus hitting her when she turned 120.
“You killed that joke,” he said.
Gustern studied psychology at Columbia University but decided to change her career path after taking classes at the Juilliard School and discovering a passion for singing, according to an obituary. She went on to perform with the New York City Opera, the Greenwich Symphony, cruise ship tours and even a stint singing in the chorus at a downtown synagogue, the obituary states.
But Gustern was perhaps best known for her years as a voice teacher, training both professional entertainers and amateur music lovers. A friend described Gustern as an “87-year-old teenager,” according to her obituary.
Maier Gustern said Pazienza had also ruined his ability to sing and destroyed his love of opera — that he weeps every time he tries to listen to recordings of singing lessons with his grandma. He said Pazienza had also made him hate New York City and made him feel unsafe in a place where his grandmother had always felt secure.
“I curse you, Lauren Pazienza,” he said as he ended his speech. “For the rest of your days, may you be miserable.”
Pazienza said in court that she understood Maier Gustern’s anger.
“If it was my grandmother, I would be broken and my life would be shattered,” she said.
Pazienza also said she is participating in a drug and alcohol abuse program in jail and meets regularly with a counselor.
“I’m just so sorry,” she added, her voice breaking. “I wish I could take it back.”
