Overview
- Marcin Pieciak, 37, pleaded guilty last month to first-degree manslaughter in the March 2024 killing of 41-year-old Sarah McNally at the Ceili House in Maspeth, Queens.
- Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant imposed 24 years in prison plus five years of post-release supervision, calling the surveillance footage of the attack one of the most horrifying she had seen.
- In court Pieciak accepted responsibility, said he had no explanation for his actions, and asked McNally’s family for possible forgiveness in the future.
- Prosecutors said he stabbed McNally 19 times, severing her spine and damaging her carotid artery, then slashed his own throat and was safely disarmed after confronting officers outside while holding two knives.
- Patrons intervened at the pub and detained him until police arrived, and McNally’s relatives watched the sentencing via video as their victim-impact statement described her planned return to Ireland and the family’s lasting grief.