LEVITTOWN, N.Y. (1010 WINS) — A 27-year-old Nassau County man was convicted Thursday of killing a cancer-stricken grandmother with a machete, with jurors rejecting his insanity defense for causing her 2017 murder.
Benjamin Lopez's attorneys claimed he had schizophrenia and that his co-defendant killed Laraine Pizzichemi after tricking him into taking part in the 73-year-old's slaying on Sept. 13, 2017, at her Levittown home on North Newbridge Road, according to trial testimony reviewed by Newsday.
Lopez was found guilty of first and second-degree murder, as well as assault, robbery, burglary and weapon charges.
Prosecutor Stefanie Palma told the jury that Lopez and Deangelo Gill broke into Pizzichemi's home to target her grandson Mark Depperman "to rob him of his drugs and money and pay him back for snitching."
She said Depperman, who had multiple drug arrests, identified Lopez to police during an arrest, and that Lopez wanted revenge.
Palma told jurors that Pizzichemi got "in the way" of that plan.
However, Robert Gottlieb, Lopez's attorney, presented the jury with two binders of records detailing his client's psychiatric diagnoses and treatments from when he was 7 years old until age 15, according to the report. He said Lopez's mental illness went awry after he stopped treatment.
"Schizophrenia prevented him from truly appreciating, as we understand it, that his conduct was wrong," he said during his closing argument. "Whatever was going on in his brain, it resulted in him at that time breaking with reality and losing control over his thinking."
Gottlieb added that Lopez rejected a psychiatric evaluation by an expert for the prosecution because he was paranoid "that the state was going to harm him." Additionally, he reportedly pointed to court testimony from a defense expert that schizophrenia is incurable.
The outlet reports that Palma had argued the defense presented no evidence showing Lopez didn't understand the nature and consequences of his actions that led to Pizzichemi's killing and the repeated slashing of Depperman.
According to the report, Lopez's defense team had failed to establish that Lopez was not guilty due to a mental disease or defect and that his medical records from before 2011 were irrelevant.
Palma also connected Lopez as the person who killed Pizzichemi, citing her blood found on his sweatshirt and her blood on a machete sheath that police discovered in Lopez's waistband when he was arrested.
Whereas, the prosecutor said Gill's sweatpants had Depperman's DNA on them but not his grandmother's.
Jurors were reportedly not made aware that Gill, 23, is serving 17 years to life in prison after pleading guilty in 2019 to second-degree murder and first-degree assault in the case.
The prosecution went through the events that led to Depperman's slashing and his grandmother's murder.
Depperman, then 24, returned home as Lopez and Gill attempted to hide before attacking as Lopez demanded that he open his safe, Palma said during the trial.
Depperman's sister, then 21, came home to "blood everywhere," before Lopez pulled out a gun and again demanded that her brother open his safe, according to prosecutors.
Lopez and Gill then stole items, including cash and marijuana, allegedly stuffing them into a backpack.
Palma said that then Depperman made an interrupted 911 call, prompting a police response, and Lopez and Gill fled out the rear after seeing an officer outside.
Police recovered a machete in the house and tracked down Lopez and Gill at Lopez's home as they got into a Honda Civic with Lopez's mother, the prosecutor said. The knife Gill used to attack Depperman, the gun from the confrontation, Pizzichemi's pocketbook and Lopez's bloody clothing were also recovered.
Acting State Supreme Court Justice Francis Ricigliano scheduled Lopez's sentencing for Sept. 13 — exactly five years to the day the crime occured.
Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a statement that Pizzichemi's life was "horrifically extinguished" when Lopez "hacked and slashed her repeatedly with a machete for simply being present as he and Deangelo Gill robbed her grandson."
She added, "Pizzichemi was slight and frail, having undergone chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer, and unable to fight for her life against the vicious attack."
Calling it a "ruthless crime," Donnelly said Lopez will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars.
