The twisted Staten Island teen who allegedly decapitated his mom’s boyfriend remained hospitalized with a blood infection Wednesday – and faced a judge from his bed in the grisly crime.
A green scrubs-clad Damien Hurstel, 19, rested his head on a pillow and spoke in a deep, calm voice as he appeared by video in Richmond County Criminal Court for his arraignment on murder and manslaughter charges.
The disturbed youth is accused of stabbing city Department of Sanitation worker Anthony Casalaspro, 45, and severing his head Monday morning inside their Cary Avenue home, court papers state.
Twisted Staten Island teen Damien Hurstel, who allegedly decapitated his mom’s boyfriend, remained hospitalized Wednesday, delaying his first court appearance. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post
Hurstel’s accused of stabbing city Department of Sanitation worker Anthony Casalaspro (above) and severing his head Monday morning inside their Cary Avenue home. Facebook/Anthony Casalaspro
Criminal defense attorney Mark J. Fonte entered a not guilty plea on behalf of his client and successfully asked the judge to line up medical and psychiatric attention for Hurstel, as well as to place him on suicide watch.
“I’m going to be aggressively trying to research his psychiatric history,” Fonte said after the brief hearing.
“This was a horrendous situation… I was told that he had a seizure in the holding pens yesterday. He was hospitalized today for blood infection.”
The arraignment – during which Judge Biju Kosha ordered Hurstel held without bail – nearly didn’t happen as Hurstel’s apparent medical woes kept him hospitalized.
The accused deranged killer had been expected to appear in court Tuesday, but an apparent seizure scuttled that hearing.
The blood infection kept Hurstel hospitalized Wednesday, leading to his virtual appearance in a courtroom where only two of his family members attended.
Those family members, an uncle and cousin, as well as others reached by The Post, declined to comment.
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Sources have said the troubled teen — who has a history of mental health issues — planned to dispose of Casalaspro’s body by dismembering and pulverizing the pieces in a blender, starting with the head.
He allegedly coldly confessed to cops at the NYPD’s 120th precinct, telling them he committed the horrifying act because he wanted to know what it felt like to kill, according to law-enforcement sources.
“I see the kid all the time. He’s not a troublemaker, he’s not loud, he’s not doing all the crazy things … it’s shocking that all of a sudden, he turned into a monster,” neighbor David Chong told The Post on Wednesday. “It’s disturbing.”
Hurstel is facing charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon. Kyle Mazza/Shutterstock
Chong said he saw the victim’s longtime girlfriend, Hurstel’s mother, come home Monday afternoon and run out of the family home on Cary Avenue.
“She was screaming, ‘He’s dead,’” Chong recalled. “She’s crying … I didn’t know what to think. Then she called 911, and she was screaming, ‘He’s dead, he’s dead.’”
The horror house where Hurstel carried out his alleged heinous crime was visited Wednesday by NYPD crime scene investigators, who donned HAZMAT suits as they milled inside and out.
One carried an envelope from the sealed-off home.
Hurstel faces charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon, court papers state.
His next court appearance is Friday.