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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 trial, the judge said.
“The doctor was of the opinion that there was a viable psychological defense here, but your client does not wish to use that defense, and that’s what he told two psychiatrists,” Queens Judge Ushir Pandit-Durant told Mitchell. “So he does not want that defense.”
Pandit-Durant said Zisopoulos denies it’s even him in the shocking video of the fatal attack.
Mitchell left that defense option open during her opening statements.
“If you decide the video is real and Peter Zisopolous is the man in the video, the next question is, did he intend to kill her?” she said. “The million-dollar question is, if you decide that was Peter Zisopolis, what was in his mind? Did he intend his actions?”
But prosecutors contend that two camera angles of the incident show Zisopoulos coming up behind Russo-Elling on 20th Avenue and 41st Street shortly before 2:30 p.m. on the day of the attack — and then is seen running at her, knocking her to the ground and repeatedly stabbing the helpless FDNY worker.
Prosecution witness Courtney Bryson, who saw the incident, shot video of the attacker walking away and leaving the mortally wounded victim bleeding out.
The victim’s daughter, Danielle Fuoco, said outside court that she struggled to watch footage of her mom’s senseless death.
“It was disturbing, but it needs to be done,” Fuocco told The Post of airing the footage in court. “I’m here to make sure this all turns out the way it’s supposed to and to get justice for my family.”
The stricken daughter had wept during testimony from EMT John Nicosia, 28, who recalled finding her mom dying on the sidewalk.
“She was very critical. She was not breathing. She had no pulse,” Nicosia said. “She was bleeding from her chest abdominal area.
“I performed CPR and started breathing for her,” said the EMT before breaking down in tears.
“Sorry,” he said, composing himself, then adding, “Her clothes were saturated in blood.”
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