Fiend’s ‘sorry’ sobbing
The confessed killer of a high-level Brooklyn DA staffer’s daughter — who gave a sobbing apology as he was hauled off to court yesterday — has a violent history of terrorizing his ex-wife, police sources and a neighbor said.
“I loved Daniella. I’m sorry to her family. I’m sorry for my children,” shackled NYC Transit bus dispatcher Brian Sohtz, 36, sniffled as he was taken from the 68th Precinct station house in a white jumpsuit.
Sohtz was charged with second-degree murder in the horrific stabbing of girlfriend and single mom Daniella Mannino, 34 — and a judge ordered him to undergo psychiatric evaluation.
Tuesday afternoon, Mannino’s butchered body was found by cops in Sohtz’s Gravesend bathroom. The ground-floor windows of his apartment were covered in Easter decorations that hid the horror inside.
Mannino went over to Sohtz’s home Monday night to break off their two-year relationship, but ended up staying the night.
Sources said Sohtz has a violent past that includes a 2006 arrest for terrorizing his then-wife in Patchogue, LI.
In that incident, the neighbor recalled how Sohtz’s wife “ran out of their home, banging on neighbors’ doors screaming, ‘He’s going to kill me!’ ”
Police sources said that when arrested in the Patchogue case, Sohtz was carrying a handgun and bullets. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of menacing and criminal possession of a weapon, police sources said.
The neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said the pair often fought over his alleged philandering and on one occasion a woman showed up at the door and claimed she was pregnant by Sohtz.
“That led to a huge fight,” the neighbor recalled.
A co-worker at the Brooklyn bus depot in East New York where Sohtz worked remembered him being busted on a gun charge.
A Transit spokeswoman said there was no record of that incident.
Meanwhile, Mannino’s dad, Joseph, 64, the chief of office services for DA Charles Hynes, remained cloistered in the family home where his daughter grew up, surrounded by loved ones and friends.
Friend Rita Dimaggio said on her Facebook page that Sohtz was “a f–king nut. He should rot in hell, the bastard.”
Additional reporting by William J. Gorta, Vinita Singla, C.J. Sullivan and Len Maniace
