Insanity plea in author stabbing

The 30-year-old son of a New York City Corrections Officer has been ordered to a maximum-security psychiatric facility for testing, after pleading insanity in the 2006 murder of a 78-year-old author and father of three city cops.
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown alleges that on Saturday, September 16, 2006, William Z. Scott, of 150-90 Village Drive in Briarwood stabbed Carmine Randazzo, 78, numerous times in front of a flea market at 80-25 Parsons Boulevard.
Randazzo died shortly afterwards at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica.
Witnesses directed police from the 107th Precinct to Scott’s residence, where he was arrested. He was arraigned in the prison ward of Bellevue Hospital on Tuesday, September 19 and was held without bail.
On Tuesday, October 7 Scott came before Queens Supreme Court Justice Robert J. Hanophy and entered a plea of “not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect,” according to Brown.
The judge ordered him to undergo psychiatric testing at Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on Wards Island.
The 15-story yellow brick building sits alongside the Triborough (RFK) Bridge, at the western end of the span to Astoria.
Reports published after the arrest said that Scott, a diagnosed schizophrenic on medication, had a criminal record dating back to 1995, with convictions including robbery, assault, weapons and drug possession.
At the time, neighbors were quoted as saying that Scott, is an African-American, had a long-standing reputation for violent behavior and verbal hostility toward “white people,” and that he apparently evolved from “a happy-go-lucky boy into a deranged young man.”
Scott faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted of Randazzo’s murder.
“The plea could result in the defendant being kept in an institution until - if ever - he is deemed well enough to reenter society,” according to Brown.
“The disposition in this case is a measure of justice for the Randazzo family,” Brown said, adding “It reflects society’s obligation to treat the mentally ill while at the same time keeping those who are violent off the streets.”
Randazzo’s last book, Solo Lupo, which means “Lone Wolf” in Italian, was published on June 6, 2005.
With the news of his murder, the book’s popularity rating on Amazon.com went from number 2,758,448 to number 126,368 within days. It has now slipped back into obscurity (number 2,896,835) with the passage of time and is out of print.
Scott was ordered to return to court on November 10, for the presentation of a psychiatric report.