A two-time cancer survivor has described the lasting scars of a neighbor’s attack in The Villages.
The woman was attacked March 3, 2025 by 67-year-old Diane Lynn Carpentieri in the Carlton Villas in the Village of Sabal Chase. The woman had a chance to lay out the toll the attack has taken, prior to Carpentieri’s sentencing hearing this past week in Sumter County Court.
The woman, who stands 4 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 99 pounds, had been taking out her garbage at about 6:30 p.m. that evening when Carpentieri began a verbal altercation about a pressure washing job that had taken place at their side-by-side courtyard villas.
Carpentieri grabbed the other woman’s right arm “with a lot of pressure, and twisted it behind her back,” according to the arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
“I did absolutely nothing to provoke this ambush,” the woman said in her victim impact statement. “I have never been in a physical altercation in my life.”
The arrest report indicated that Carpentieri stands 5 feet four inches tall and weighs 180 pounds. The woman described Carpentieri as “significantly larger than herself.”
Following the assault, the neighbor was in a “state of shock.” She sought emergency care the next morning and was referred to an orthopedic specialist.
That was just the beginning.
Ten days later, she was hospitalized for a stress-induced event.
“I thought I was having a heart attack,” she said.
Medical professionals concluded that the acute stress from the assault was a primary contributing factor to the subsequent cardiac event.
She felt unsafe in her own home and moved in with a friend for more than month.
She and Carpentieri continue to live next door to one another.
“I am now afraid to perform basic tasks, such as taking out the trash, maintaining my property, washing my vehicle, carrying in my groceries, etc. I suffer from heightened anxiety when entering or exiting my vehicle or standing in my front yard. I experience ongoing sleep disruptions and a persistent loss of sense of security my home once provided,” she said in the statement.
Carpentieri pleaded no contest to a charge of battery. After reviewing the victim impact statement, Judge Mary Hatcher sentenced the former New Yorker to two years of probation.