Murder defendant who stabbed parents after job loss goes on trial

A Syosset family's three-bedroom ranch turned into "a house of horrors" after a son who had argued with his parents about losing his job stabbed his mother 47 times with a steak knife, ending her life before trying to kill his father, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Ian Kazer, now 31, left his mother Frances Kazer "butchered and bleeding" on the kitchen floor of the Syosset Circle home on March 20, 2019, before attacking his father, Howard Kazer, when the man returned home from picking up a pizza, according to prosecutor Nicole Aloise.

"The defendant's only intent that night was to kill," she told State Supreme Court Justice Angelo Delligatti.

But the defense team for Kazer, who is standing trial for allegedly murdering his 66-year-old mother and trying to do the same to his father, now 71, didn't contest during opening statements in his Nassau County Court trial that he carried out the killing.

Instead, Kazer's attorney Daniel Russo told Delligatti, who is presiding in the nonjury trial, that the case was a "horrific tragedy" and his client "acted under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance."

The Garden City lawyer said the evidence would show there was a reasonable explanation for such a disturbance from Kazer's viewpoint, "however inaccurate that perception might be."

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

Russo said Kazer was diagnosed as a young boy with autism spectrum disorder and significant other psychological problems, had attended special education classes throughout his schooling, and began taking psychiatric medication at age 6.

The defense attorney said Kazer's stress from being fired from his job at the Target store in Westbury that day, after stealing gift cards because of "compulsion, not greed" and then being arrested, kicked off "a perfect storm" in the defendant's head that led to the violence.

"This is a stressful event for any human being but add in the severe psychological and emotional disabilities that Ian suffers from ... It was the beginning of the end of the world as Ian knew it," Russo said.

But Aloise portrayed the defendant as a greedy son who carried out a "harrowing attack." The prosecutor said it was indisputable that the defendant's Asperger's syndrome diagnosis was evident when he later spoke to homicide detectives about the events in his home. But Aloise called it "irrelevant to the defendant's intent" and "irrelevant to his murderous acts."

The trial is scheduled to continue Thursday.