‘Granny shover’ Lauren Pazienza, 27, breaks down in tears as she is sentenced to eight-and-a-half years for pushing Broadway singing coach, 87, to her death on NYC sidewalk while drunk and stoned

Long Island event planner Lauren Pazienza has been sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for pushing veteran Broadway singing coach Barbara Maier Gustern to her death in an unprovoked attack last year.

Pazienza, 27, attacked the 87-year-old singing coach on a sidewalk in Chelsea last March, forcefully pushing her to the ground. Pazienza was drunk and stoned at the time.

She wept uncontrollably as the verdict was handed down in a New York court on Friday. She had pleaded guilty to manslaughter in August.

The sentence amounts to significantly less time behind bars than the 25-year prison sentence she faced if she went to trial.

Pazienza, the heiress to a vast cesspool-draining empire on Long Island, has been held at Rikers Island for more than a year since the motiveless attack.

Broadway singing coach Barbara Maier Gustern died in a hospital five days after the random shoving attack in March 2022

Pazienza cried as she was jailed on Friday for the attack that took place in March last year

Pazienza, 27, attacked the 87-year-old singing coach on a sidewalk in Chelsea last March, violently pushing her to the ground

Gustern died five days after being admitted with serious head injuries after being pushed.

It was later revealed that Pazienza, who did not know her victim, had crossed the street and called the singing coach before pushing her.

Before the seemingly random attack, Pazienza had enjoyed several glasses of wine with her fiancé as they celebrated the 100 days until their wedding. She may also have taken a Xanax.

“She had had drugs, maybe two bottles of wine and a ton of marijuana,” attorney Arthur Aidala claimed outside a Manhattan courtroom in June.

She had been kicked out of Chelsea Park, which was about to close, when she crossed the street and attacked Gustern.

Pazienza, who has no criminal record, is represented by Arthur Aidala, who previously represented disgraced film executive Harvey Weinstein during his 2020 trial in Manhattan.

Pazienza’s high-profile lawyer Arthur Aidala (left) and her parents (right)

The police published these images of Pazienza and claimed that she was responsible for the attack. Two days later she turned herself in

Gustern’s grandson AJ (left) said Pazienza is lucky she could afford such a competent legal advisor

Pazienza sat in tears next to her attorney during a hearing in August when she agreed to a plea deal

According to prosecutors, Pazienza’s fiancée previously revealed that she had consumed “several glasses of wine” before the attack as the couple celebrated their engagement.

When she was told the park was closing, she reportedly became enraged and attacked Gustern in the street, pushing the 87-year-old to the ground and calling her a “son of a bitch.”

She then allegedly watched as a paramedic took the vulnerable elderly woman away as blood seeped from her head.

Pazienza, prosecutors allege, then spent the next two weeks trying to cover her tracks. She quit her job, deleted her social media pages and even stashed her cell phone at her aunt’s house on Long Island after fleeing her apartment in Astoria, where she lives with her fiancé who works at Microsoft.

After several weeks, she finally turned herself in to the NYPD after police released images of her as a suspect in the attack.

Her former friends said it was “no surprise” that Pazienza was charged with the disturbing crime.

‘What angered me most was that her lawyer said she was overcharging and was a good and moral person. She’s not,” one person said.

‘I knew her very well at school and she was a real pain in the ass.’

“She had had drugs, maybe two bottles of wine and a ton of marijuana,” attorney Arthur Aidala claimed outside a Manhattan courtroom in June.

Seen as a teenager on a family vacation, Pazienza appears to have lived a life of privilege and later glamor in New York City high society before ending up behind bars

Pazienza was imprisoned on Rikers Island, but grew up in a wealthy family on Long Island and enjoyed Manhattan’s high society. She is seen above in photos from her teenage years

According to the former classmate, “She is the textbook example of white privilege. She has never faced consequences in her life. She was enabled to do this by her parents, who helped her out of everything, but she called them stupid and basic.’

An acquaintance also said that she was prone to mocking people and speaking in a derogatory way: “about fat people and deaf people… whoever.”

Footage shared with DailyMail.com also showed the 27-year-old appearing to mock deaf people, contorting her face as she screeched and pretending to be someone with a disability.