Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Marcin Pieciak was sentenced to 24 years in prison for fatally stabbing his girlfriend, Sarah McNally, in March 2024. The defendant pleaded guilty to manslaughter last month in satisfaction of the indictment against him. Pieciak cornered the victim while she worked at a Maspeth tavern, fatally attacked her, then slit his own throat.

District Attorney Katz said: “Marcin Pieciak mercilessly stabbed his girlfriend 19 times at her place of work. This violent and unprovoked attack took Sarah McNally’s life and left her family, friends and colleagues devastated on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. We hope that today’s sentence provides some measure of comfort as Ms. McNally’s loved ones continue to grieve her senseless loss.”

Pieciak, 37, of 76^th Street in Glendale, pleaded guilty last month to manslaughter in the first degree in satisfaction of the indictment against him. Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant sentenced the defendant today to 24 years in prison to be followed by five years of post-release supervision.

According to the charges, on March 30, 2024, at approximately 6:30 p.m., Pieciak arrived at the Ceili House Bar at 69-56 Grand Avenue in Maspeth. The defendant approached 41-year-old Sarah McNally as she worked, went behind the bar and stabbed her 19 times in the neck, back and chest causing fatal injuries to her carotid artery and severing her spine.

Pieciak then cut his own throat several times with a second knife and attempted to run from the bar. A patron intervened and stopped the defendant from fleeing the scene. When police arrived, Pieciak exited the premises with two knives and brandished the weapons toward the officers. Police safely disarmed him and recovered the knives.

Assistant District Attorney Gabriel J. Reale of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau prosecuted the case with the assistance of Assistant District Attorney Veronika Podoprigora under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys John Kosinski, Bureau Chief, and Karen Ross and John Selkowe, Deputy Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Shawn Clark.