STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Alicia Zayas says her fiancé, Anthony Casalaspro, was a good man, a city sanitation mechanic who stepped up to help raise her children, according to the New York Post.

Now, she’s mourning his brutal death and pleading for understanding as her son, 19-year-old Damien Hurstel, faces murder charges in one of Staten Island’s most horrifying crimes in recent memory.

“He didn’t have to do that,” Zayas said in an interview with the New York Post. “Anthony was helping me raise my kids. He was a great man.”

Hurstel is accused of stabbing Casalaspro to death and decapitating him inside the family’s West Brighton home.

Hurstel allegedly showed his 16-year-old sister Bri the mutilated body and asked, “Do you want her (Zayas) to live?” during a terrifying encounter, Zaya

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