A 70-year-old Philadelphia woman is accused of fatally stabbing a 31-year-old man with a knife hidden in her cane, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.
Renee DiPietro is charged with third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and possession of a crime instrument for the killing of Michael Sides on June 10 in Ardmore.
Police initially responded to reports of a stabbing at the intersection of Cricket Avenue and Cricket Terrace in Ardmore around 1:30 a.m. on June 10 and located Sides "unresponsive and hemorrhaging from his upper torso." Authorities transported him to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Investigators later discovered that DiPietro's son, Jason DiPietro, allegedly "sucker-punched" Sides' friend at a nearby bar.
"After the altercation, Sides was overheard saying that he was going to ‘seek out’ Jason DiPietro for assaulting his friend," the DA's office said in a press release.
Jason allegedly called his mother, crying, from Ardmore. She gathered her cane and a baseball bat and drove to the area with her husband, according to an affidavit
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Surveillance camera footage from local businesses captured Jason getting in his parents' car later that evening, but the victim "stopped him" from entering, according to the DA's office.
Sides engaged Jason in a fight, at which point Renee got out of the car's passenger side and joined the altercation to "defend her son," the affidavit states.
Renee used her cane to hit Sides once or twice in the back, at which point the sheath apparently came off, exposing the 16-inch blade inside. Renee then allegedly stabbed Sides with the blade in her cane.
Sides fell to the ground, and Renee allegedly struck the victim before she and her family fled the scene, the DA's office said. Renee told investigators that she did not remember hitting him again after he fell.
The license plate on the car the DiPietro family was driving was bent upward in an effort to avoid license plate identification.
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Montgomery County Coroner Dr. Gregory McDonald determined that Sides died of a single stab wound to the chest and ruled his manner of death to be a homicide.
Sides' obituary states that the 31-year-old was "a beautiful person that never saw the bad in anyone."
"He was a kind soul that loved animals and would take the jacket off his back for someone in need," the obituary reads. "Mike lived life to the fullest and would enjoy having a good conversation with anyone at any time. He is loved, and will be missed, by all that knew him, forever."
DiPietro's bail was set at $50,000, or 10% of her total $500,000 bail. She is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 22 for a preliminary hearing.
