Son 'snapped' before stabbing mother to death, defense expert testifies

Ian Kazer "snapped" and fatally stabbed his mother because the autistic adult believed his parents were going to kick him out of the family’s Syosset home after arguing about his job loss and arrest for stealing, a defense expert testified Friday.

"They started telling him there was no future for him. His life was over," forensic psychologist and attorney Joe Scroppo said in Nassau County Court. " … The inflow of painful information was so high … he snapped."

Kazer, now 31, is standing trial for allegedly murdering his mother, Frances Kazer, 66, and trying to kill his father, Howard Kazer, now 71, on March 20, 2019.

Scroppo testified that the defendant was under the influence of an "extreme emotional disturbance" when he lashed out in the family’s Syosset Circle home hours after the argument, stabbing his mother 47 times with a steak knife before covering her body with a blanket on the kitchen floor.

Under state law, a successful extreme emotional disturbance defense would mean Kazer was guilty of first-degree manslaughter but not guilty of murder.

Scroppo also said during questioning by defense attorney Daniel Russo that Kazer has autism spectrum disorder and ADHD and remained stuck, even though hours had passed, on what his parents said during the family’s argument. What Kazer believed to be true at the time "triggered" emotional difficulties and led to the violence, the expert said.

He described the defendant as a "childlike" loner who never lived apart from his parents, attended all special education classes during his schooling, never had a romantic partner and spent about 90% of his time playing video games. Because of his severe mental impairments, Kazer routinely had trouble controlling his impulses and was easily provoked, the expert said.

As an example, Scroppo spoke of a 2010 episode in which he said Kazer banged his head on a wall, putting a hole in it and knocking himself unconscious after trouble with a video game.

The defense expert said he believed it was Kazer’s "intolerable" emotional state and not a motivation linked to money that sparked his deadly fury.

But prosecutors have alleged in the nonjury trial before State Supreme Court Justice Angelo Delligatti that the defendant’s only intent that night was to kill, that greed motivated him and that an Asperger's syndrome diagnosis was "irrelevant to his murderous acts."

The defendant was calculating in his attack, according to the prosecution, who said Kazer sneaked up behind his mother to stab her while his father was out picking up a pizza.

The son then stabbed his father upon his return home, before his father was able to wrestle the knife away and call 911. Kazer had stolen nearly $3,000 in gift cards at his job as a cashier at the Target store in Westbury in the lead-up to his firing and arrest earlier that day, according to the prosecution.

Kazer’s father had proposed not only hiring a lawyer for his son, but also returning electronics the son bought with stolen gift cards to Target, before the son’s attack, prosecutor Nicole Aloise previously told the judge.

During a cross-examination Friday, Aloise got Scroppo to acknowledge that Kazer had held his Target job for two years despite his description of him as "very seriously impaired by his autism and his ADHD."

The witness also acknowledged Kazer had graduated from high school — passing two Regents exams — and had a male friend he played video games with who had gone on the same trip to a camp in Israel.

Scroppo acknowledged Kazer had feelings for a female bartender "who tolerated his crush," had control of a bank account and would have known stealing was wrong.

The expert also said during Aloise's cross-examination that Kazer had told him during part of the 14 hours he had examined him that he previously had fantasized about killing his parents.

But Scroppo insisted Kazer's behavior on the day of the stabbing was different because of his state of mind and loss of control, along with the provocation he said the defendant was experiencing at the time.

Forensic psychiatrist Jeremy Colley is expected to testify for the prosecution next week.