Chilling details of what to expect at trial for FDNY EMS lieutenants killer

Jurors will be shown images of the stabbed heart of a beloved Queens EMS lieutenant murdered by a maniac who randomly knifed her more than 20 times, officials said in court Monday.The 43-year-old daughter of tragic victim Alison Russo-Elling wept in court at times during Monday’s opening testimony.The disturbing images of Russo-Elling’s fatally damaged heart will be part of the case involving defendant Peter Zisopoulos, 36, who is charged in the horrific attack on the 9/11 first-responder, who was on a meal break just a half-block from her stationhouse Sept.29, 2022, when she was killed.The accused killer’s lawyer cautioned jurors during opening argument that the evidence could be grisly.“The medical examiner will describe the stab wounds, some 5 inches deep, to her heart, her liver, her lungs,” Queens public defender Gina Mitchell told the jury.

“You will see her heart removed for autopsy, stabbed multiple times.”More than 40 city firefighters and EMS personnel packed the courtroom for the trial alongside the 61-year-old victim’s kin, as prosecutors indicated they plan to rely heavily on surveillance footage and eyewitness accounts of the senseless attack.“The knife had blood on it.Blood with DNA from two individuals,” Queens Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Selkowe said.

“One, Alison Russo.The other, that [of the] defendant.“When the police found the defendant, he still had the murder weapon in the right front pocket of his pants,” Selkowe said.

“He was caught red-handed — his hand covered in blood.”The troubled accused killer lived with his hoarder mom and two siblings in a railroad apartment near the crime scene, Mitchell said Monday.“You will see the bed in which he sleeps directly beside his mother,” she said.In court, Zisopouolos, who wore an orange parka and orange winter pants in court despite the warm weather, refused to use an insanity defense — despite the opinion of two psychiatrists who examined him before ...