A young Brooklyn mother killed her stepfather by flinging a pair of scissors into his chest as she reached the boiling point in an long-simmering argument over her living in his house, authorities and witnesses said.
Police said Lynda Delaney, 26, was expected to be charged Monday night in the death of Daniel Ilardi, 55, who died early Monday, 10 hours after the Sunday afternoon confrontation.
Police said they were never called to Ilardi’s two-story home in Bensonhurst, where Delaney’s 2-year-old daughter, Alexa, and Delaney’s mother also live. But family members and friends said that Delaney’s living in the house has long been a source of tension.
“She said, ‘I’m going to kill your father. You’re father’s dead,” said Mathew Ilardi, the victim’s son, recalling Delaney’s words in recent days.
But several of Delaney’s friends spoke in her defense, saying that she was physically and verbally abused by her stepfather and mother, and was being attacked when she struck Ilardi with the scissors.
All said that Delaney had been arguing with her stepfather all day on Sunday.
At one point, the arguing became so heated that Delaney swung a box cutter at her stepfather, who managed to wrestle it away from her, according to Ilardi’s son.
Jennifer Para, 26, the suspect’s best friend, said the argument began because Delaney wanted to go on the Internet to check her Myspace account.
At about 5:30 p.m., Delaney allegedly flung the scissors at her stepfather, who was standing about five feet away, according to police and Mathew Ilardi, who witnessed the attack. The scissors struck the stepfather’s chest, piercing his right ventricle before falling to the ground, police said.
The elder Ilardi, a divorcee and father of six who manages a car storage business, struggled for life at Lutheran Medical Center, until he died at about 3:30 a.m. Monday, police and relatives said.
I was unable to locate Delaney’s MySpace account.
