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Ex-boyfriend accused of murdering Irishwoman Sarah McNally in New York appears in court
Marcin Pieciak (37) has been charged with her murder in the second degree alongside two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree.
The Céilí House Bar in Maspeth, Queens, New York, where Longford woman Sarah McNally was murdered almost a year and a half ago.
The late Sarah McNally sustained fatal injuries when she was stabbed multiple times while working as a bartender in New York on March 30 last year.
A murder charge taken against the former boyfriend of an Irish bar worker who was stabbed to death in New York over a year ago is still no closer to being resolved.
Forty-one-year-old Longford woman Sarah McNally died in the wake of a knife attack inside the doors of the Ceili House Pub in Maspeth, Queens on March 30 last year.
The former Meán Scoil Mhuire student had been working at the time when a male assailant walked into bar and stabbed her multiple times in the neck and upper body.
Ms McNally's former boyfriend, Marcin Pieciak (37), of 76th Street in Glendale, was subsequently arrested and charged with her murder in the second degree alongside two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. HIs case was before the court in Queens, New York earlier this week.
The late Sarah McNally sustained fatal injuries when she was stabbed multiple times while working as a bartender in New York on March 30 last year.
It is the prosecution's case that Pieciak 'cruelly and brazenly' took the life of the much loved bartender by stabbing her up to 19 times before cutting his own throat.
Pieciak was formally indicted by a Grand Jury last April in his absence as a result of self-inflicted stab wounds following the incident.
'The defendant is accused of cruelly and brazenly taking the life of someone he purported to care for and doing so in front of her colleagues and bar patrons.
'We are grateful to the grand jury for returning these serious charges and we will work to seek justice for Sarah McNally.'
The late Sarah McNally.
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According to the charges, Pieciak entered the bar where Ms McNally had been working at approximately 6:30pm.
Prosecutors say CCTV footage taken from the scene shows Pieciak walk behind the bar and towards Ms McNally before suddenly stabbing the Longford woman 19 times in the neck, back and chest.
Moments later, Pieciak allegedly can be seen cutting his own throat several times before a customer bravely attempts to detain the accused from fleeing the scene.
The charges go on to allege that when police detectives arrived soon afterwards, they managed to disarm Pieciak just as the accused emerges from behind the bar brandishing two knives.
He has remained on remand in custody ever since and has made a number of appearances at Queens County Criminal Court over the intervening 16 month period.
The latest of those came at a court sitting in New York on Tuesday morning in an appearance which a Queen District Attorney described as an 'administrative' adjournment.
'The case is still pending,' the spokesperson added, ahead of Pieciak's next appearance in court in five weeks time.
At Ms McNally's funeral mass back in her native Longford last April, tributes to the much loved former Irish Prison service employee paid testimony to a young woman with a 'heart of gold' whose vivacious personality would 'light up rooms' everywhere she went.
