Ex-Port Jefferson resident Lauren Pazienza sentenced in Barbara Gustern's death

A state court judge on Friday sentenced former Port Jefferson resident Lauren Pazienza, who acknowledged last month that she fatally shoved famed vocal coach Barbara Gustern onto a Manhattan sidewalk, to 8½ years in prison. 

Manhattan state Supreme Court Judge Felicia Mennin sentenced Pazienza, 28, to six months more in prison than the 8-year plea deal negotiated between prosecutors and Pazienza’s defense attorney, Arthur Aidala. Pazienza pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter on Aug. 23 to the 2022 death of the 87-year-old Gustern, a vocal coach whose students have included Blondie singer Deborah Harry. 

Pazienza sobbed as she expressed remorse for the actions that led to Gustern’s death, but Mennin told the former event planner that she tacked on the additional six months to the sentence because the defendant has not accepted responsibility for her actions. 

“What you’ve done can never be undone,” Mennin told Pazienza before delivering the sentence. 

At least a dozen of Gustern’s friends and relatives braved Friday’s stormy weather to attend the sentencing, including Gustern’s grandson, A.J. Gustern of Colorado, who called Pazienza’s apology “contrived.” 

“I curse you, Lauren Pazienza,” Gustern said while reading a statement in court. “For the rest of your days, may you be miserable.” 

Pazienza’s father, Daniel Pazienza of Port Jefferson, left court without speaking to reporters. Aidala did not return a request for comment. 

By pleading to the manslaughter charge, Pazienza admitted that she had intended to injure Gustern and then caused her death. 

Authorities said Pazienza and her fiance lived together in Astoria at the time of the assault on Gustern. The couple went to Chelsea to visit art galleries on March 10, 2022, to celebrate their impending wedding, scheduled for that June. Pazienza had several glasses of wine and then went with her fiance to Chelsea Park to eat food purchased from a nearby cart.

Pazienza became angry after a park worker told the couple the park was closing, authorities said. She stormed out of the park without her fiance and gave Gustern a forceful shove as the elderly woman was on her way to a concert. 

Gustern fell and struck her head on the pavement. She was conscious enough to recall that her attacker had called her an expletive as she was shoved. Gustern died five days later from a head injury on March 15, 2022. 

“Barbara Gustern’s sudden, violent death at the hands of Lauren Pazienza left a family and community in mourning,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said. “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.”

Prosecutors said Pazienza deleted her entire online presence, including her wedding website. They said she fled to her parents' home in Port Jefferson but surrendered to police on March 22. 

Pazienza, who has already been in jail since the spring of 2022, had faced as much as 25 years for the top manslaughter charge. Earlier in the case, Manhattan prosecutors reportedly offered her a plea bargain of 17 years, which Aidala quickly rejected. 

But after a defense expert earlier this year raised the issue of Pazienza’s heavy drinking and impaired mental state just before the incident, weeks of plea negotiations began, resulting in an agreement between prosecutors and Aidala on the eight-year sentence for Pazienza.

But Mennin said Pazienza had not accepted responsibility for the attack that left the octogenarian dead. 

Gustern’s grandson agreed, calling Pazienza’s apology “forced.” 

”She only seemed to make it after her lawyer said something to her,” Gustern said. “It seemed like somebody had written it for her.”