POUGHKEEPSIE – Mark Dedaj, 34, pleaded guilty in Dutchess County Court today, admitting to smothering his teenage sister with a pillow, killing her.  Dedaj admitted to placing the pillow over the face of Maureen Nelson-Lanzi at her Harts Village Road residence, suffocating her.  The official cause of death was listed as asphyxia.

The State Police conducted the initial investigation and were met with apprehension by former District Attorney Bill Grady’s administration on whether or not the death was a homicide.  When DA Anthony Parisi took office in 2024, he worked with the police to advance the investigation. 

Following a conference between prosecutor Anthony DeFazio, Dedaj’s attorney Mara Timourian, the investigators, and the family on Thursday, the DA’s office offered to reduce the charge to manslaughter, with a recommended sentence of 25 years, in exchange for a guilty plea.

, and transferred from the prison where he was serving a sentence for assault in an unrelated incident to a treatment facility governed by the Department of Mental Hygiene.  He was treated through counseling and medication and was later deemed competent.

Following the guilty plea, Dedaj was returned to Eastern Correctional Facility, where he will remain until his sentencing in March.