A Howard Beach man was sentenced to 23 years in prison Thursday for fatally shooting a tarot card reader shortly after she opened the front door of her Ozone Park home in May 2022 because he thought she was a witch who had put a curse on him.
Giuseppe Canzani, 43, of 88th Street, pleaded guilty on Sept. 8 to manslaughter in the first degree in satisfaction of the charges against him for gunning down 51-year-old Anna Torres, the mother of an NYPD cop.
According to the charges, on May 4, 2022, at 2:26 p.m., Canzani knocked on the front door of Torres’ residence at 94-59 109th Ave. in Ozone Park. When Torres answered the door, Canzani shot her in the neck and arm and sped away in a black Chevrolet Traverse he had parked in front of a nearby home. Police from the 106th Precinct in South Ozone Park responded to a 911 call of shots fired at the location and they found the victim lying face up in a pool of blood just beyond the entrance to her home at approximately 2:35 p.m. EMS responded to the crime scene and pronounced her dead.
At approximately 3:22 p.m., Canzini pulled up outside the 106th Precinct in the Chevrolet Traverse and pulled out a Taurus .45-caliber silver handgun, placed it on the sidewalk and said, “I want to turn myself in. I’m not here to hurt you guys. I’m here because of the woman I shot.”
Canzani told police Torres was “a witch” and that because of her, someone was going to harm his family.
“The defendant shot Anna Torres in broad daylight in the doorway of her own home, sending pedestrians running for their lives at the sound of the gunfire,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “This senseless act of violence shattered the victim’s family and shocked the Ozone Park community.”
Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder sentenced Canzini to 23 years in prison to be followed by five years of post-release supervision.
“Nothing can undo what happened, but we hope today’s sentencing provides Ms. Torres’ loved ones another step forward in the healing process,” Katz said.
