New York man sentenced to 30 years for fatally stabbing pregnant wife

A New York man who stabbed his pregnant wife to death reportedly because she was carrying a baby girl — and he wanted a boy — has been sentenced to just 30 years in prison.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Drew Garnier stabbed his wife, Samantha Garnier, and their two young daughters in September 2024.

• Samantha was five months pregnant with their third daughter, and Garnier wanted a boy.

• Garnier took a plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and two counts of first-degree assault and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

• The plea deal protected Samantha’s young daughters from having to testify in court.

THE DETAILS:

As Live Action News previously reported, Drew Garnier, 33, stabbed his wife, Samantha Garnier, 29, and their two daughters, ages six and nine, in their Masonville, New York home in September 2024. Though the two little girls survived, Samantha and her preborn child did not. Samantha was five months pregnant at the time of her death.

After a plea deal in which he pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter and two counts of first-degree assault, Garnier was sentenced last week to 30 years in prison, followed by 15 years of supervised release. In a news statement, Delaware County District Attorney Shawn J. Smith admitted that the sentence was “not perfect,” but emphasized that the plea deal was made so that the young girls did not have to relive the trauma of the event by testifying in court. They are both reportedly still recovering from their stab wounds.

Though the preborn child was also a victim of the crime — and the baby was old enough to have potentially survived outside the womb — New York state does not recognize preborn children as homicide victims, and the charges therefore did not reflect the child’s death.

During sentencing, Samantha’s father, Gregory Vernagallo, said in a victim impact statement that Drew had murdered Samantha because she was pregnant with another girl, and he wanted a boy.

“He wanted a boy,” Vernagallo told the court, adding that he has since adopted his two granddaughters.

“I am their father now,” he said. “I will protect them.”

Garnier has been prohibited from visiting his daughters until 2056, but the girls could petition the court for permission to speak to their father before that time, should they so choose.

THE BOTTOM LINE: 

Homicide remains a leading cause of death for pregnant women, exceeding all the leading health-related causes of maternal mortality. According to research published by the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in January 2025, between 2005 and 2022, of 20,421 maternal deaths, 1,407 were due to homicide.

“Many people are surprised when they hear that violence is the leading cause of death in pregnancy,” says the study’s lead author Hooman Azad, MD, MPH, a fourth-year resident in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at New York’s Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “Right now, the definition of maternal mortality does not include death by homicide. I’m not sure this is correct — being pregnant or postpartum significantly increases the risk of death by homicide, and more pregnant women die of violence than any individual medical cause. Part of the reason violence is not recognized as the leading cause of death during pregnancy is because we don’t include homicide and suicide in the definition of maternal mortality.”

Editor’s Note: If you are a victim of domestic violence, please visit thehotline.org or call 1-800-799-SAFE.