Anthony Iacomino, of Inwood, admits beating his brother to death in October 2025

An Inwood man pleaded guilty on Monday in Nassau County Court to beating his older brother to death with his bare hands inside his mother’s house in October 2025.

Anthony Iacomino, 47, admitted killing Joseph Iacomino, 52, at their family home on Wahl Avenue late in Oct. 4 into early Oct. 5 last year.

Anthony Iacomino, a former construction worker, changed his plea in exchange for a deal with the court and prosecutors to a sentence of 18 years to life in state prison.

The defendant was charged with second-degree murder and faced 25 years to life in prison if he had been convicted of the original charge.

“His mother lost two sons,” defense attorney Kenneth St. Bernard said after the hearing. “Anthony, being a decent person, decided to spare his family having to watch an entire trial and be upset at what they see, which I think is a brave thing for him to do.”

The lawyer said that there were signs of domestic abuse in the household.

Prosecutors had statements that the defendant made after his brother’s death and video and audio recordings that showed the brothers fighting on the night in question.

During his pleading, when Anthony Iacomino was first asked by Nassau prosecutor Veronica Guariglia if he beat his brother to death, he said he couldn’t remember.

“I assume so, I don’t recall, I blacked out,” he said.

When asked again, he admitted that he had killed his brother.

According to the lawyer and family members, the brothers struggled with drug and alcohol abuse and had a long-running animosity toward each other.

The fight last October was not the first time the brothers fought, Jane Ciavolina, 54, a cousin, said.

“This was an alcohol-fueled fight,” St. Bernard said. “He remembers part of it, but he doesn’t remember how it ended.”

Joseph Iacomino died of blunt force trauma.

Antoniette Iacomino, 78, the mother of the two men, sat in a wheelchair in the courtroom as her son pleaded guilty.

Afterward, she was allowed to say goodbye.

“I love you. Momma loves you. I miss you,” she told him.

Anthony Iacomino had been arrested months earlier for an attack on his girlfriend in which he was accused of strangling her. That case is still pending. He's scheduled to appear before a judge on Tuesday on those charges. He will be sentenced on the second-degree murder charges on Dec. 10.