Isiah Thompson, the man convicted of slashing an MTA conductor across the face last year, was sentenced to six years in prison by a Bronx judge on Tuesday — a sentence the conductor called “an insult.”
Thompson was found guilty in July on charges he brutally attacked Lynette Pierce, a No. 6 train conductor, in June 2025.
Prosecutors said Thompson yelled at the 36-year-old mother of two shortly after she reopened the train doors for him at the Morrison Ave.-Soundview station in the Bronx.
Thompson boarded the train, prosecutors said, and screamed, “Shut the f— up! Don’t tell me what to do!” after hearing the routine announcement to stand clear of the closing doors.
Upon getting off the train two stops later, Thompson approached the conductor’s window, grabbed Pierce, and slashed her in her face, underneath her left eye.
Lynette Pierce (center), the MTA subway conductor that Isaiah Thompson slashed, is pictured in Bronx Criminal Court during Thompson’s sentencing on Tuesday, September 22, 2026. Bronx DA Darcel Clark is pictured at left. (Barry Williams / New York Daily News)
“It’s not the sentence that my office asked for,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said of the six-year bit Tuesday. “We asked for the maximum sentence of seven years.”
“We still believe justice will be served,” she added.
Thompson’s attorney had asked the court to sentence him to the minimum, five years.
Bronx DA Darcel Clark speaks during a press conference after Isaiah Thompson was sentenced in Bronx Criminal Court for attacking MTA subway conductor Lynette Pierce (in sunglasses at left) on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (Barry Williams / New York Daily News)
Pierce, who addressed reporters after the sentencing, called the six-year sentence “a slap on the wrist.”
“God consistently reminded me that I worked this hard to get this far for a purpose,” Pierce said. “All of that was taken from me because of a coward, someone who consistently attacks women.”
As previously reported by the Daily News, police said that Thompson had previously been arrested 18 times for a variety of criminal offenses, mostly in the subway system.
Isaiah Thompson, center, is pictured in Bronx Criminal Court during his sentencing for attacking an MTA subway conductor on Tuesday, September 22, 2026. (Barry Williams / New York Daily News)
Clark said Thompson has three prior felony convictions, including an attempted assault in Brooklyn in which he pushed a woman into a stationary subway car.
“(For Thompson) to be slapped on the wrist with six years is an insult,” Pierce said.
“No one understands the pain until they go through it,” the conductor added. “I need everyone to understand, we are human beings.”
Lynette Pierce (center), the MTA subway conductor that Isaiah Thompson slashed, is pictured in Bronx Criminal Court during Thompson’s sentencing on Tuesday, September 22, 2026. Bronx DA Darcel Clark is pictured at left. (Barry Williams / New York Daily News)
John Chiarello, president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, took aim at the judge, saying those who don’t apply the maximum sentence in cases like Thompson’s “should be ashamed of themselves.”
“What kind of justice is this?” he said. “Six years is a walk in the park.”
“We move New York,” the union boss added. “We should not be stabbed, cut up, spit on, assaulted — we deserve better.”