{"id":101638,"date":"2026-01-15T21:53:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/101638\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T21:53:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:53:25","slug":"staten-island-teen-charged-with-decapitating-moms-boyfriend-to-seek-insanity-defense-lawyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/101638\/","title":{"rendered":"Staten Island teen charged with decapitating mom’s boyfriend to seek insanity defense: lawyer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The disturbed Staten Island teenager charged with decapitating his mom\u2019s boyfriend<\/a> will seek an insanity defense, his lawyer revealed Thursday \u2014 saying the accused killer is schizophrenic and was off his meds at the time of the gruesome crime.<\/p>\n

Damien Hurstel, 19, only spiraled out of control after he came of age, meaning he was no longer a minor under his parents\u2019 care and his mother was barred from forcing him to take his medication, defense attorney Mark Fonte argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he\u2019s medicated he is a loving child,\u201d Fonte claimed to reporters outside the courtroom, where the troubled teen \u2014 who is being held at the psych unit on Rikers Island \u2014 appeared for a brief hearing.<\/p>\n

Damien Hurstel, 19, is charged with murder for allegedly decapitating his mother\u2019s boyfriend on Staten Island. LP Media<\/p>\n

Hurstel getting taken away from the NYPD\u2019s 120th Precinct in Staten Island on a stretcher on Oct. 7, 2025. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he\u2019s not medicated he suffers from severe, very severe, mental health issues including schizophrenia and history of seizures, schizophrenia, mental health episodes that his family was on top of,\u201d Fonte said.<\/p>\n

Hurstel flew off the rails during the bloody Oct. 6 2025, attack<\/a> inside the family\u2019s Cary Avenue home, but is now the passive person he\u2019s capable of being when he\u2019s taking his meds, his attorney claimed. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, as of today and for the court proceedings, he\u2019s in a much better place than he was at the time of the incident,\u201d Fonte said. \u201cThe issue before the court is what was his mental health like at the time of the incident, not what it is like today in the courtroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unhinged teen is accused of bludgeoning 45-year-old Anthony Casalaspro to death with a meat tenderizer because he wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone, according to authorities and law enforcement sources.<\/p>\n

Hurstel allegedly beat Anthony Casalaspro to death and then decapitated him. Facebook\/Anthony Casalaspro<\/p>\n

The decapitated body of Anthony Casalaspro, 45, next to a saw after the gruesome Oct. 6 attack on Staten Island. Obtained by the New York Post<\/p>\n

After his arrest, he allegedly admitted to cops at the NYPD\u2019s 120th Precinct stationhouse that he had tried to sever Casalaspro\u2019s head with a knife, but grew frustrated and picked up a hand saw instead.<\/p>\n

The sick teen allegedly told police he had planned to liquify the body in a blender and flush the remains down the toilet, starting with the dead man\u2019s brain<\/a>, sources have said.<\/p>\n

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Photos from the crime scene showed a bloodied Hurstel covered in blood and strapped to a stretcher as police took him into custody and shipped him off to a local hospital<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Post\u2019s cover on the grisly Staten Island murder.<\/p>\n

According to Hurstel\u2019s attorney, the teen\u2019s life took a turn after he turned 18 and his mother Alicia Zayas (pictured) was no longer able to force him to take his medication. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n

Police said Hurstel had gotten into a spat with his mom earlier in the day, and Casalaspro told him to take a walk to cool down. When he returned, Casalaspro was alone and the teen allegedly attacked him.<\/p>\n

In court Thursday, the lanky, 6-foot-tall Hurstel appeared attentive, wearing khaki scrubs and smiled after spotting his uncle and his mom, Alicia Zayas<\/a>, in the courtroom.<\/p>\n

The family declined to comment. <\/p>\n

Judge Alexander Jeong ordered the teen to return to court on Feb. 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The disturbed Staten Island teenager charged with decapitating his mom\u2019s boyfriend will seek an insanity defense, his lawyer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[2441,57,238,9,24,63,38708,2442,134,136,135,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-101638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-mental-illness","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-murders","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-schizophrenia","15":"tag-stabbings","16":"tag-staten-island","17":"tag-staten-island-headlines","18":"tag-staten-island-news","19":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}