The disturbed Staten Island teenager charged with decapitating his mom’s boyfriend will seek an insanity defense, his lawyer revealed Thursday — saying the accused killer is schizophrenic and was off his meds at the time of the gruesome crime.
Damien Hurstel, 19, only spiraled out of control after he came of age, meaning he was no longer a minor under his parents’ care and his mother was barred from forcing him to take his medication, defense attorney Mark Fonte argued.
“When he’s medicated he is a loving child,” Fonte claimed to reporters outside the courtroom, where the troubled teen — who is being held at the psych unit on Rikers Island — appeared for a brief hearing.
“When he’s 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,” Fonte said.
Hurstel flew off the rails during the bloody Oct. 6 2025, attack inside the family’s Cary Avenue home, but is now the passive person he’s capable of being when he’s taking his meds, his attorney claimed.
“So, as of today and for the court proceedings, he’s in a much better place than he was at the time of the incident,” Fonte said. “The 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.”
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.
After his arrest, he allegedly admitted to cops at the NYPD’s 120th Precinct stationhouse that he had tried to sever Casalaspro’s head with a knife, but grew frustrated and picked up a hand saw instead.
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’s brain, sources have said.
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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.
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.
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, in the courtroom.
The family declined to comment.
Judge Alexander Jeong ordered the teen to return to court on Feb. 10.
