An East Oak Lane woman was convicted of third-degree murder for a fatal sword cane stabbing
Renee DiPietro said she was acting in self-defense on June 10 when she stabbed Michael Sides in the chest with a 16-inch sword cane. Sides was a friend of the man her son sucker punched in a bar.
An East Oak Lane woman who stabbed a man with a 16-inch sword cane as he fought with her son was convicted late Thursday of third-degree murder and possession of an instrument of a crime.
Renee DiPietro, 70, had claimed she had acted in self-defense in June when she wielded the blade against Michael Sides, 31, while picking up her son from a bar in Ardmore after he had punched Sides’ friend inside.
But a Montgomery County jury apparently was not swayed, and issued the guilty verdict after about six hours of deliberation. DiPietro’s family, including her youngest son, Justin, erupted in protest as the verdict was read, with his mother calling at him to calm down.
County Court Judge Wendy Rothstein revoked DiPietro’s bail, and she will remain in custody ahead of her sentencing, which will be scheduled in the coming days. She faces up to 20 to 40 years in prison.
DiPietro’s attorney, Louis Busico, did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday evening.
Busico said during the two-day trial that neither his client nor her son knew who Sides was, or why he was attacking them — Sides was not present for the initial conflict in the bar, and only heard about it after the fact, according to trial testimony.
She didn’t commit murder, Busico said, but was acting on the “fundamental human instinct” of protecting herself and her youngest child when confronted by a man physically larger and stronger than her.
Justin DiPietro had called his mother just after midnight on June 10, upset and asking her for a ride home, prosecutors said. He had walked into John Henry’s Pub to see his girlfriend kissing and flirting with another man, whom he sucker punched before being ejected from the bar.
About an hour later, as DiPietro got into his mother’s Nissan Versa, Sides ran up to him and started a fight, according to surveillance footage played during the trial.
DiPietro, who had carried a baseball bat and the sword cane with her to Ardmore, struck Sides with the cane, knocking the blade’s sheath off. She then stabbed Sides once in the chest, penetrating his rib and one of his heart’s ventricles, according to testimony from the medical examiner who performed Sides’ autopsy.
Sides later was pronounced dead at Lankenau Medical Center.
Before leaving the scene, DiPietro bent the Nissan’s license plate upward to obscure it. At their home, her husband, Michael, parked the car behind their house, instead of in their driveway.
Prosecutors, led by Deputy District Attorney Brianna Ringwood, said those actions showed DiPietro’s consciousness of guilt. But Busico said, instead, they were measures taken out of fear, not knowing who had attacked them, or whether they would be followed home.