Peter Zisopoulos, alleged killer of FDNY EMT Capt. Alison Russo of Huntington, takes the stand to deny he fatally stabbed her

The Queens man on trial in the killing of FDNY EMS Capt. Alison Russo testified Friday that he didn’t stab her to death on an Astoria street corner in September 2022, claiming that a graphic video of the incident showed what he thought might be a caricature of himself.

Called as the only defense witness in the trial, Peter Zisopoulos spoke in a flat voice, absent any emotion and gave mostly one-word answers to questions put to him by both his attorney and the prosecution.

"No," was Zisopoulos’s reply when defense attorney Jonathan Latimer asked if he was the person seen on surveillance videos repeatedly stabbing Russo, of Huntington, as she lay on her back at the corner of 41st Street and 20th Avenue.

Asked what he was doing in the hours before the attack, Zisopoulos said he had been sleeping in his apartment around the corner from the intersection the morning of Sept. 29, woke up to eat some cereal and went back to sleep, only to be awakened around 2 p.m. by police officers knocking on his door.

Zisopoulos, now 37, testified he had graduated high school in Queens and attended Stony Brook University for about a year but left because he said the dormitory was too noisy. He said that he then enrolled in City College in Manhattan but left around 2010 because he found the course of study in electrical engineering too difficult. He also said he spent some time in the military but left for reasons that weren’t explained in court.

On cross-examination, Queens Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Selkowe sought to show some contradictions in what Zisopoulos was saying on the witness stand and what he had told police and reporters earlier.

Asked about his statement to police right after the incident that he had been watching the news around the time of the attack, he replied that maybe he had said that.

Shown two videos of the incident which police and witnesses said showed him committing the deadly assault, Zisopoulos answered "No,” when asked if that was him. He also said that one video showing him repeatedly stabbing the 61-year-old Russo "maybe looks like a caricature of me.”

Both the defense and prosecution had to avoid eliciting any testimony from Zisopoulos that might put his mental state at the time of the attack in issue. Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant kept that evidence out because the defense never gave notice the defendant’s mental status would be used as an affirmative defense.

Experts in the case had said that Zisopoulos suffered from delusions and psychosis but Pandit-Durant said he was fit to stand trial.

Zisopoulos, clad in orange prison garb and sporting a new beard, spent about an hour on the witness stand. He was uncuffed but two court officers stood around him as he testified.

At the end of testimony Friday, Pandit-Durant denied a defense request for dismissal of the charges. She set Monday as the date of summations and expected that they would get to begin deliberations then on the second-degree murder and weapons possession charges.

Russo’s daughter, Danielle Fuoco of Shoreham, said outside court that she was disturbed to see Zisopoulos act so nonchalantly on the stand.

"I think he doesn’t care, doesn’t care at all about what he did,” Fuoco said.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.