(SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y.) – Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that Philomena Mistretta, 51, of Coram, was sentenced to seven years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision after pleading guilty to Attempted Murder in the Second Degree, and other related charges, for intentionally striking a 63-year-old woman with a minivan, following a verbal and physical altercation with the victim at a public parking lot in Bellport.
“What began as a disagreement should never have escalated to this level of violence,” said District Attorney Tierney. “The defendant made a conscious choice to harm another person, and today’s sentence reflects the gravity of that decision.”
According to court documents and the defendant’s admissions during her guilty plea allocution, on October 26, 2024, shortly after 3:30 a.m., Mistretta was sitting in the driver’s seat of a 2004 White Toyota Sienna when she was involved in a verbal dispute with the victim who was standing next to the passenger side of the vehicle.
The argument, at the parking lot of Miracle Plaza off Montauk Highway in Bellport, escalated after Mistretta got out of her vehicle then got into a physical altercation with the victim.
Mistretta then returned to her vehicle, backed up, angled her car towards the victim, and then drove over her, dragging the victim for a short distance.
The victim was transported to Long Island Community Hospital with lacerations to her skull. Suffolk County Police officers arrested Mistretta at the scene.
On June 18, 2025, Mistretta pleaded guilty before Acting Supreme Court Justice Richard I. Horowitz to one count of Attempted Murder in the Second Degree, a Class B violent felony, one count of Attempted Assault in the First Degree, a Class C violent felony, and one count of Assault in the Second Degree, a Class D violent felony.
On July 22, 2025, Mistretta was sentenced to seven years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision. She was represented by Chase Brown, Esq.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Patrick J. Mullen of the Major Crime Bureau, and the investigation was conducted by Detective John McGay of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Fifth Squad.
