BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Three sisters have been found guilty of abusing their 71-year-old father, claiming messages from God told them he was being unfaithful to their mother.
In a non-jury trial, State Supreme Court Justice Christopher Burns convicted the Pietrocarlo sisters - Elissa, 41, Grace, 31, and Annabel, 23 - of second-degree assault.
According to prosecutors, the sisters intentionally caused physical injury to their father over an extended period of time inside their home on North Creek Road in Hamburg.
In 2002, Elissa Pietrocarlo - who was also known in the family as 'The Prophet' - claimed she began receiving messages from God. One of the messages, according to the D.A.'s office, indicated her father was being unfaithful to her mother, who the family considers the 'Queen of God.' When he denied the claims of infidelity, he was beaten by the women in the household.
Prosecutors said the father was isolated from the family and forced to stay in a small area of the kitchen separated from the rest of the house by a curtain.
Then in 2017, the mother accused the father of defiling her name to a friend. He was then choked and beaten to the floor by the women, where he suffered a broken rib and bruised spleen.
The father eventually told a friend about the abuse, who contacted police.
The victim's wife, Christine Pietrocarlo, was acquitted of robbery and menacing charges.
The three sisters each face up to seven years in prison when they are sentenced in July.
“I’m actually speechless, I don’t know how to start to describe the horror that this man lived in," Erie County District Attorney, John Flynn, said. “If anyone deserves seven years in jail, it is these three monsters.”
