DA charges son murdered mom over Mets game

BY VICTOR G. MIMONI

Thursday, August 2, 2007 11:44 AM EDT

A 25-year-old Fresh Meadows man is being held without bail on Riker's Island for the brutal murder of his own mother, allegedly prompted by a Mets loss.

On Saturday, July 28, police in the 107th Precinct responded to a 9-1-1 call around 11:15 p.m. They arrived at apartment 6E in the building at 65-82 160th Street, to find the body of Maria Fischman, 61, who lived at the address.

Fischman had been stabbed and bludgeoned, and was pronounced dead by Emergency Medical Service paramedics, who arrived at the scene shortly after the police.

Police also found the son of the victim, identified as Michael Anthony, 26, who lived at the same address, and arrested him without incident.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said that Anthony has been charged with second-degree murder, assault and weapons possession, and faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

Brown said that Anthony was watching the Mets lose a close game to the Washington Nationals and began banging on the walls. This led to a physical altercation with his father, Fred Fischman, 55. When his mother intervened, “the defendant allegedly pushed her and stabbed her once in the head with a knife,” according to Brown.

“Mrs. Fischman then ran into the bedroom, where the defendant allegedly struck her several times in the head with a 20-pound barbell,” Brown said.

Published reports claim that the victim's husband was seen carrying a barbell down the stairs from the Electchester apartment he shared with his wife and the suspect.

At the time, Fischman, clad only in his underwear, was reported by neighbors to have said, “I wanted him committed, but his mother didn't want it." Fischman is also reported to have said that the suspect had “mental problems.”

Witnesses are reported to have said that the suspect seemed impassive as he was led away by police, but according to published reports, Anthony, a Queens College graduate, was first taken to a nearby hospital, after complaining of chest pains.

Anthony reportedly admitted to fighting with his father, but claimed that his mother intervened, armed with a kitchen knife. “I took the knife from her and it got stuck in her head,” he is reported to have told police.

The report also claims that Anthony told police that “he thought she was going for a weapon in a dresser drawer.”