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NORRISTOWN — A Philadelphia woman acted with malice and an extreme indifference to the value of human life when she used a cane-sword with a 16-inch blade to fatally stab a man who was engaged in a fistfight with her son in Ardmore, a prosecutor argued to a jury.
“That’s the key issue in this case. What was she thinking when she stabbed him?” Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Bradley Walter Deckel argued during his opening statement to jurors as the trial for accused killer Renee D. DiPietro got under way on Tuesday.
Deckel argued DiPietro, 70, injected herself into a fistfight between her son, Jason, and Michael Sides, who was unarmed, and used the sword hidden in her cane to fatally stab Sides in the chest. Deckel argued DiPietro’s conduct rose to the level of third-degree murder, which is a killing committed with malice, an extreme indifference to the value of human life and a conscious disregard that one’s conduct could seriously injure or kill another person.
“This didn’t have to happen. Michael Sides didn’t deserve to die. Michael Sides is dead because of the defendant,” argued Deckel, who is handling the case with Deputy District Attorney Brianna Leigh Ringwood.
Jurors viewed video surveillance footage that recorded the stabbing and a mortally wounded Sides falling to the ground.
But defense lawyer Louis R. Busico argued DiPietro acted with “the most basic instinct” that every mother has to protect her child. Busico suggested DiPietro was forced to defend herself and her son against an aggressive man, who was taller and heavier than DiPietro’s 5-foot 1-inch and 100-pound frame.
Busico argued the blade became unsheathed after DiPietro stuck Sides one time with the cane.
“He (Sides) continues his aggressive behavior and goes toward Renee and Jason,” argued Busico, suggesting DiPietro acted in self-defense and defense of others.
Busico did not reveal if DiPietro will testify during the trial. DiPietro came to court walking with the aid of a cane and wore a type of leg brace.
Busico is seeking an acquittal of all charges filed against DiPietro.
DiPietro, of the 500 block of West 67th Street, faces charges of third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and possession of an instrument of crime in connection with the June 10, 2023, fatal stabbing of Sides, 31, at the intersection of Cricket Avenue and Cricket Terrace in the Ardmore section of Lower Merion.
A conviction of third-degree murder carries a possible maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison.
Involuntary manslaughter occurs when someone causes the death of another person while acting in a reckless or grossly negligent manner and is a misdemeanor punishable of a possible maximum sentence of 2½ to 5 years in prison.
The trial before Judge Wendy G. Rothstein is expected to last about three days. DiPietro remains free pending trial after posting $50,000 bail, 10%.
An autopsy determined Sides’ cause of death was a stab wound to the chest and the manner of death was ruled homicide.
The investigation began about 1:33 a.m. June 10, when Lower Merion police were dispatched to a report of a stabbing at the intersection of Cricket Avenue and Cricket Terrace and found Sides unresponsive on the ground, hemorrhaging from his upper torso, according to the criminal complaint filed by county Detective John Wittenberger and Lower Merion Detective Bryn Garner.
“He was laying semiconscious on the roadway. I observed a puncture wound to his chest,” Lower Merion Police Officer John O’Brien, one of the first responding officers, testified, adding he observed part of a cane on the ground near Sides.
Sides was transported to Lankenau Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 2:28 a.m. June 10.
The investigation uncovered an altercation earlier that evening at a nearby bar, John Henry’s Pub on Cricket Avenue, during which a friend of Sides was “sucker punched” by a man later identified as Jason DiPietro, who is Renee DiPietro’s son, according to authorities. Prosecutors suggested Jason was upset that his girlfriend and the man he punched had been flirtatious with each other.
Jason DiPietro reportedly was ejected from the bar and called his parents.
Later that night, testimony revealed, Sides, who was bartending at Jack McShea’s Pub nearby, learned about his friend being punched and sought out the man who punched him, Jason DiPietro.
Witnesses told detectives they observed Sides engage in a physical altercation with Jason DiPietro as Jason attempted to get into the back seat of a white sedan, occupied by his parents and stopped at the intersection of Cricket Avenue and Cricket Terrace, according to the arrest affidavit.
“The victim prevents Jason DiPietro from entering the vehicle and engaged in a physical assault with him,” Wittenberger and Garner alleged in the arrest affidavit. “The victim was not armed with any type of weapon.”
During the altercation, according to witness statements and video surveillance, Michael DiPietro, Renee’s husband, exited the driver’s side of the vehicle, and Renee DiPietro got out of the front passenger side and she “began to strike the victim with what appeared to be a black cane that fell apart.”
A witness told detectives he observed Renee DiPietro “lunge” toward Sides with the cane and watched as Sides fell to the ground, bleeding. Following the alleged stabbing, Renee DiPietro “then appeared to strike the victim after he was on the ground with the weapon,” according to the arrest affidavit.
The witness observed Renee DiPietro attempt to remove the license plate from the vehicle, and then the three members of the DiPietro family departed the area in the Nissan sedan, according to the criminal complaint.
“The video surveillance depicted the registration plate of the departing vehicle was obscured as it appeared to have been bent upwards. Detectives suspect this was an intentional act to prevent any witnesses from obtaining the registration of the vehicle departing the scene,” Wittenberger and Garner alleged.
Detectives were able to identify Jason DiPietro’s parents as Renee, and Michael, age 73, and interviewed the three at their home in Philadelphia at 7:45 a.m. June 10.
During the interview, detectives alleged, Michael DiPietro stated, “It was self-defense, he came looking for trouble and he got it,” and Renee DiPietro directed detectives to where the weapon was located in the residence.
Investigators also found the white Nissan Versa sedan at the residence, with the license plate flattened “to give it a somewhat normal appearance, unlike it was when it departed from the crime scene,” detectives alleged.
When Renee DiPietro was interviewed by detectives she claimed to have gotten a phone call from her son Jason, who was “upset and crying,” and she took a baseball bat and her walking cane as she and her husband drove to their son’s location in Ardmore.
“Renee stated her walking cane was also a bladed weapon that she carried at times in the event she was ever robbed or assaulted,” Wittenberger and Garner alleged. “Renee stated as they arrived in the area, she observed her son Jason attempt to get into the back seat of their car when a ‘big’ male pulled him from the car and was assaulting him. Renee stated she observed another male in the area and exited the Nissan to ‘defend her son.’”
Renee DiPietro claimed the man had her son in “a hold” and that she used her walking cane to strike him once or twice on the back and the sheath of the blade came off the cane, exposing the bladed weapon, according to court papers.
“Renee stated the male assaulting her son came at her and she ‘poked him’ and observed him fall to the ground,” Wittenberger and Garner alleged, adding she did not recall striking Sides again after he fell to the ground and claimed she departed the area because she was “scared.”
None of the three called 911, and Renee DiPietro told detectives they drove to their home, talked to Jason and then went to bed, detectives alleged.
Jason and Michael DiPietro were not charged with any crimes in connection with the incident.
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