Witness: Fiancee's attacker said he was hired hit man

On the evening his fiancee was stabbed in the neck outside her Franklin Square home last year, Brian Dashner testified Friday that he chased the attacker on foot and when he caught up with him the stabber admitted he was a hired hit man.

Dashner told jurors he pretended he had a gun and threatened to shoot the suspect, whom police later identified as Timothy Gersbeck, if he didn't stop. Gersbeck threw his hands up in the air and surrendered.

"He said 'I was hired. I was hired,' " Dashner, 35, testified at Anthony Battisti's attempted-murder trial in Mineola.

Dashner, 35, asked Gersbeck who had hired him to kill Dashner's then-girlfriend, Patricia Battisti, 44.

"He yelled out 'Tony,' " Dashner said.

Nassau prosecutors said "Tony" is Anthony Battisti, 42, a New York City police officer, who promised to pay Gersbeck, 37, of Levittown $5,000 to kill his ex-wife Patricia Battisti, the mother of his two children. She was stabbed three times in the back of the neck on Jan. 23, 2009, and survived the attack, prosecutors said.

The motive: Anthony Battisti was tired of paying alimony and fighting for custody of his son, prosecutor Carolyn Kelly said.

Anthony Battisti, free on $500,000 bail, is charged with first-degree attempted murder and second-degree conspiracy. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

During opening arguments, Battisti's lawyer, Stephen Scaring of Garden City, said Gersbeck, a mechanic who did odd jobs for Battisti, acted alone, then implicated Battisti to get a better deal for himself.

Gersbeck, who pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted murder, is expected to testify for the prosecution.

During Friday's cross-examination of Dashner, Scaring attempted to discredit Dashner's testimony by focusing on Dashner's numerous brushes with the law in several states from 1993, when Dashner was a teenager, until 2004.

The trial continues Monday before Nassau County Court Judge John Kase.