When cops stormed the Upper West Side apartment of Julian Kurita two years ago, the pool of blood on the living room floor was still moving. Kurita’s 70-year-old father, Fumitaka, was not.
“It was pretty gruesome,” Officer Stephen Jones testified of the horrific, slashing filicide today, in a preview of what’s to come when Kurita, 32, goes on trial for murder in Manhattan Supreme Court tomorrow.
“His neck was open,” the cop said of the frail father, who was lying face up, nearly decapitated on the floor of their 31st floor apartment on West 87th St.
“And his hand was literally trying to hold it shut,” the cop added of the victim’s dying gesture.
There was blood everywhere, including on the ceiling, the cop told Justice Charles Solomon. Blood had also splattered on the dinner table, which was set with plates of uneaten food.
“He f—ing deserved it,” the son announced as paramedics bandaged his wrists, which he had apparently slashed with the same kitchen knife he’s charged with using on his father.
Kurita made never-substantiated claims that night of the father “molesting” him for years and trying to rape him — but has a long history of delusions and psychiatric treatment, said his lawyer, Norman Williams, who hopes a jury will find him not responsible for the murder by reason of insanity.
The trial is moving forward with jury selection tomorrow despite assistant district attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon saying today that prosecutors would not object if Kurita were sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
The maximum sentence Kurita now faces if convicted at trial is 25 years to life in prison, meaning he would have to spend at least 25 years behind bars before he could see a parole board. A verdict of not responsible would instead send him to a locked psychiatric facility until he was deemed safe for release.