McLean, 26, is charged with killing and dismembering his mother, 52-year-old home health aide Tanya Byrd, inside their apartment on Feb. 26, 2013.
Calvacca argued in her opening statement that jurors should acquit McLean by reason of mental defect or disease.
Bashid McClean, a schizophrenic confessed to dismembering his mom and depositing her body parts, stuffed in garbage bags across the South Bronx
McLean, 23, implicated himself in the gruesome death after investigators recovered a saw inside the apartment where he lived with victim Tanya Byrd and his 7-year-old brother, Nasyr.
Cops also found a shopping cart used to distribute Tanya Byrd’s severed body parts to four locations within walking distance of their home

Calling her client “broken” Calvacca said  McLean had been hearing voices since he was 10 years old, and had been treated at various mental hospitals ever since.
The Prosecution however called the killing “cold-blooded,” arguing that McLean knew exactly what he was doing when he thrust the knife into his mother’s neck.
Relatives of the home health aide packed the gallery as a stone-faced McLean, wearing a gray sweater, stared down at the defense table in front of him.
At one point, he whipped out a plastic comb to brush his goatee.
Assistant District Attorney Aaron Kaplan told the court the defendant fatally stabbed his mother in the neck after she told him he made a lousy father.
After the cold blooded killing, he went to a hardware store and bought a two-foot jigsaw, which he used to carve up the corpse. Next, he stuffed Byrd’s chopped-up remains into bags
Curiously, the accused killer, sporting a smile, paused to take a selfie, holding up his mother’s detached head like a trophy. Cops later discovered the disturbing photo on his cell phone.

He allegedly dumped the severed limbs and torso in garbage dumps across the South Bronx and fled in an SUV.
Although McLean called police to report his mom was missing, he quickly emerged as the prime suspect in the heinous crime.  The victim’s remains were later found in four separate duffel and garbage bags dumped around the neighborhood.

At the crime scene, one neighbor said “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Bahsid killed her”. According to the 43-year-old woman who lives in the same building “She was afraid of that boy. . .He was a hellion.”
Tanya Byrd was terrified of her older son Bashid McLean, who was on probation after attacking two cops with a knife in 2010. She suspected that he was battering little Nasyr. The younger brother has Down syndrome, according to the neighbor.
“Bashid had a problem controlling his rage,” said the neighbor. “He had creepy eyes. Didn’t like to look you in the eye,  but when he did, they went right through you.”
The brutal killing left McLean’s family members reeling, despite a history of aggression and mental health issues.

Tanya Byrds remains was dumped in garbage skips around South Bronx

Bahsid McClean scattered his mother’s dismembered body parts around four garbage dumps

Speaking earlier His aunt Cassandra McLean, 53,  said Bahsid nursed a grudge against her sister over his placement in foster care while his mom battled a drug problem. They reunited when he turned 18.
“I want people to know my sister was a good mother,” said Cassandra McLean. “She always took care of him.”
Today she added that her nephew was a danger to society who should be put away for life.
“If he could do that to his own mother, imagine what he could do to a stranger”.
“I don’t hate him,” she added. “I pity him.”
“He did destructive things,” said his father, James McLean. “He set fires; nobody could control him. ”
His sister, Porsche Lovett, who visited him at the station house, soon after his arrest said her brother showed no remorse he murdered their mom:
“He looked me in the eyes and told me he did nothing wrong when he killed her,”  she added. “I don’t know who he is.”
The trial continues