The crazed boyfriend who fatally stabbed his Queens bartender gal pal was sentenced Friday — as the victim’s family ripped the heartless killer as a “pathetic coward” who took away a “beautiful” soul.
Marcin Pieciak, 37, was sentenced to 24 years in prison for the brutal attack in which he stabbed his Irish girlfriend Sarah McNally 19 times while she worked inside the Ceili House Bar in Maspeth, Queens on March 30, 2024.
Relatives of McNally, a 41-year-old bar worker who was dating Pieciak at the time of her death, penned an emotional victim-impact statement slamming the lowlife for taking away their loved one.
“No woman should ever lose her life because she wants to leave a relationship,” McNally’s grieving relatives wrote in the statement, read in Queens Supreme Court during the hearing.
Marcin Pieciak was sentenced to 24 years in prison after admitting to the fatal stabbing of his girlfriend Sarah McNally. Brigitte Stelzer
“Mr. Pieciak thought he had the right to take the life of a woman, rather than walk away and leave her,” the letter said. “He made a choice that day and he chose to be a weak, pathetic coward.”
McNally’s heartbroken family members weren’t present at Pieciak’s sentencing, but said in the statement read in court by Assistant District Attorney Gabriel Reale that the lives of everyone who knew her were “shattered” by her slaying.
“You’ve made our world a much darker place having taken Sarah from it,” their letter said.
“Sarah lit up any room she walked into. She was warm and loving and always had a smile on her face,” the relatives wrote.
“She was captivating, confident and charming and she should still be here with us. You have taken her light from us all.”
Sarah McNally, an Irish bartender at the Ceili House Bar in Maspeth, was stabbed 19 times, according to prosecutors. Facebook/Mary Mcnally
McNally was working at the pub when Pieciak barged in and came up to her behind the bar — when he pulled out a knife and repeatedly stabbed her in the neck, back and neck, prosecutors said.
Surveillance video that captured the attack was “one of the most gut-wrenching things I’ve ever seen,” Reale told Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant during the hearing.
Pieciak — a regular who met McNally while she worked at the hole-in-the-wall — tried to slice his own throat several times after the attack, according to prosecutors.
He then attempted to make a run for it, but was stopped by a bar patron, the Queens District Attorney’s Office said.
When cops arrived, Pieciak had a blade in each hand and was bleeding from his self-inflicted knife wounds, police said.
Sarah McNally was working at the Ceili House Bar when Marcin Pieciak stabbed her multiple times inside the bar. William Miller
Officers were able to arrest him after they tased him with their stun guns when he refused to drop the weapons.
The victim was left lying on the barroom’s floor and later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
She suffered a damaged carotid artery and a severed spine which resulted in her death, officials said.
McNally had told coworkers that she was considering moving back to Ireland because “the relationship was not going well” shortly before the killings, officials have said. Family Handout
The Longford native had been living with her Pieciak for several months in Glendale — but had told coworkers that she was considering moving back to Ireland because “the relationship was not going well,” officials have said.
Pieciak, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the first degree in October, asked for forgiveness during the hearing.
“Every day and every night, I think about Sarah,” he said. “And I have no answers for you… I hope that one day you can forgive me, that’s all.”