Prosecutors said the Astoria attack began with a fight over money and ended with a 64-year-old woman falling three stories from her apartment window.
NEW YORK, N.Y. — A Queens man was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison after prosecutors said he beat his mother with a cane, threatened her with two kitchen knives and pushed her from a third-story apartment window during an argument over money in Astoria.
George Tsintzelis, 37, was sentenced in Queens Supreme Court after a jury convicted him in December of attempted murder and other charges tied to the Nov. 15, 2024, attack on his mother, Paraskevi Tsintzelis, 64. The case drew attention because the woman survived a fall that prosecutors described as nearly fatal, then returned to court a year later to testify against her son. The sentence closes the trial phase of a case that prosecutors said left the victim with lasting injuries and a family badly damaged.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said the violence unfolded at about 9:10 p.m. inside the family’s apartment on Shore Boulevard in Astoria, near the Marine Terrace complex. According to trial testimony described by prosecutors, the mother and son had been arguing over money when the dispute turned physical. Prosecutors said George Tsintzelis beat his mother with a cane, then went to the kitchen, took two knives and used them to threaten her. He pressed the knives against her body, forced her onto the window ledge and pushed her out, prosecutors said. The fall sent her three stories to the ground below. Neighbors saw her outside and called 911. Emergency crews took her to a hospital, where doctors treated multiple broken bones, a cut to her tongue, a lacerated intestine and internal bleeding. She underwent several surgeries and was intubated, authorities said.
The jury found Tsintzelis guilty of attempted murder in the second degree, two counts of assault in the first degree, assault in the second degree, aggravated criminal contempt, four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree and two counts of criminal contempt in the first degree. Queens Supreme Court Justice Peter Vallone Jr. imposed the sentence of 25 years in prison, followed by five years of post-release supervision. Prosecutors said the defendant had shown violence not just in the attack itself but in the use of a cane and two knives during the confrontation. Katz said in a statement that the crime was “an unthinkable act of violence against his own mother.” She said the victim’s survival was miraculous and praised her for testifying. Assistant District Attorney Christina Mavrikis, who prosecuted the case, told the court that after the fall the defendant called 911 and acted as if he did not know what had happened. In arguments recounted by local coverage, Mavrikis said he had “left her there to die on the ground.”
The case moved through court over more than a year. Prosecutors said the attack happened in mid-November 2024, and trial testimony later described the victim’s long recovery from severe injuries. Openings in the trial began on Nov. 20, 2025, according to the Queens district attorney’s office. Summations followed in early December, and the jury deliberated for about nine hours before convicting Tsintzelis on Dec. 5, 2025. At that point, Vallone had set sentencing for Jan. 21, but the sentence was ultimately announced on Feb. 18, 2026. The public record made available by prosecutors did not explain the shift in dates. What did become clear during the case was the central role of the mother’s testimony. Katz said Paraskevi Tsintzelis made the difficult decision to take the witness stand against her son after surviving the fall and months of medical treatment. That testimony gave jurors a direct account from the victim, alongside other evidence and the statements of prosecutors about the attack.
Tsintzelis denied responsibility during the trial. In remarks reported from the courtroom, he said, “I love my mother. The DA is trying to destroy my family.” He also claimed that his mother had mental health problems and said, “She did that to herself.” Prosecutors rejected that account and argued that the physical evidence, the injuries and the victim’s testimony showed a deliberate attack. The mother’s own reported views added another layer to the case. Prosecutors said she told the court her son “needs help” and that she had tried to support him by helping him find programs and by allowing him to live with her. At the same time, prosecutors said she was afraid of what he might do if he were released. Those details showed a complicated relationship inside a family already under strain before the violence on Nov. 15, 2024. The court record released by prosecutors did not say how long the son had been living with his mother or whether any previous domestic incidents led to the contempt-related charges in the case.
Astoria, in northwest Queens just east of Manhattan, is a dense residential neighborhood where apartment buildings and closely packed homes mean violent incidents often unfold in view of neighbors. In this case, that nearby witness response was part of the immediate aftermath. Prosecutors said neighbors saw the victim after the fall and called for help, bringing police and medical responders to the scene. The district attorney’s office described the woman’s injuries in stark terms and said her survival was remarkable given the height of the fall and the internal trauma she suffered. The case also stood out because of the charge mix that jurors approved. In addition to attempted murder and serious assault counts, the verdict included aggravated criminal contempt and first-degree criminal contempt charges, suggesting prosecutors alleged violations beyond the single act of pushing her from the window. Public summaries of the case did not lay out all underlying facts for those contempt counts, and the district attorney’s office did not provide further detail in the sentencing release. Still, the full verdict gave the judge broad grounds to impose a lengthy prison term.
The prosecution was handled by Mavrikis of the district attorney’s Career Criminal Major Crimes Bureau, with assistance from Assistant District Attorney Valerie Sakellaridis of the Domestic Violence Bureau. The district attorney’s office said the case was supervised by senior major crimes prosecutors, reflecting how seriously it treated an attack that prosecutors said could easily have become a homicide. With sentencing complete, the next formal steps would come through the state corrections and appellate systems. Tsintzelis can seek review of his conviction and sentence through appeal, though no appeal was described in the public materials released with the sentencing announcement. For the victim, the official account suggests recovery is still ongoing. At sentencing, Katz said she hoped the prison term would bring “a measure of solace” as Paraskevi Tsintzelis continued to heal from injuries suffered more than a year earlier. The sentence also means Tsintzelis is expected to remain under state supervision for years even after any eventual release because of the five-year post-release supervision term attached to the prison sentence.
The case left behind the image of a family dispute turned catastrophic inside a third-floor apartment, then carried into a courtroom by a mother who survived long enough and recovered enough to tell jurors what happened. Prosecutors framed that choice as one of the most important facts in the case. Katz said the victim “bravely testified” after surviving the attack. Tsintzelis, meanwhile, insisted he wanted to help his mother and should not lose his freedom over what he claimed was her own act. The jury rejected that version, and the judge imposed the maximum term described in the district attorney’s earlier post-verdict statement. What remains in the public record is a blunt sequence: an argument over money, a beating with a cane, two knives, a third-story window, a fall, surgeries and a prison sentence measured in decades.
As of Feb. 18, 2026, Tsintzelis had been ordered to serve 25 years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision, and any next milestone would likely come if he files an appeal or if the court releases further records.