Release # 143-2014
www.queensda.org
DISTRICT ATTORNEY
QUEENS COUNTY
125-01 QUEENS BOULEVARD
KEW GARDENS, NEW YORK 11415-1568
718-286-6000
RICHARD A. BROWN
DISTRICT ATTORNEY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2014
CONTACT: KEVIN RYAN
IKIMULISA LIVINGSTON
MERIS CAMPBELL
(718) 286-6315
QUEENS MAN SENTENCED TO 16 1/2 YEARS IN PRISON FOR MANSLAUGHTER
IN FATAL BLUDGEONING DEATH OF HIS WIFE
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a 57-year-old Queens man
has been sentenced to 16 ½ years in prison for manslaughter in the June 2010 beating death of his
wife inside their Queens Village home.
District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant has now been held accountable for the
senseless and brutal attack against someone he supposedly loved. He will now spend a considerable
amount of time behind bars for taking the life of his wife. Hopefully, the victim’s family can find
some degree of solace in this sentence.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Isaiah Smith, 57, of 214th Street, Queens
Village. Smith pleaded guilty in September to first-degree manslaughter before Queens Supreme
Court Justice Gregory L. Lasak who imposed today’s determinate sentence of 16 ½ years in prison.
District Attorney Brown said that, in pleading guilty, the defendant admitted that on June 8,
2010, at approximately 9:54 pm, inside his home, he repeatedly struck his wife, Tiffany Pettiford,
28, with a baseball bat about her head and body, fatally injuring her.
Senior Assistant District Attorney Denise Tirino, of the District Attorney’s Homicide Trial
Bureau, prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Brad A. Leventhal,
Bureau Chief, and Jack Warsawsky, Deputy Bureau Chief, and the overall supervision of Executive
Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant
District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Sanders.
#
Note to Editors: E-version of this press release is posted on www.queensda.org