NEW YORK— The finger-pointing started instantly after a homeless stalker with eight prior arrests allegedly attacked a Manhattan woman, stabbing her more than 40 times inside her apartment.
Christina Yuna Lee’s outraged neighbors, elected officials and even Mayor Eric Adams demanded to know why accused murderer Assamad Nash was left on the streets despite three pending Manhattan court cases. The critics blamed broken legal and mental health systems with facilitating the slaying of Lee inside her Chinatown home Feb. 13.
But a Daily News review of Nash’s record shows neither bail reform laws nor Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s progressive prosecution policies factored into his freedom at the time of the stabbing. The 25-year-old murder suspect’s experience in the system was anything but unusual, according to experts.
“It’s clear the public isn’t certain what kinds of cases were made ineligible for bail, what kinds of cases are still eligible for bail, and whether, in the cases that are eligible for bail, it means bail must be set — which it has never meant,” said Mike Rempel, director of the Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College.
The question remained unanswered as to why three judges, prosecutors under former District Attorney Cy Vance and successor Bragg, and Nash’s Legal Aid attorneys never recommended him for mental health services or a psychiatric exam at any of his court appearances — including his arraignment for Lee’s murder.
According to the DA, defense attorneys never requested an examination at any of his appearances.
And it remained unclear if the Manhattan judges who saw Nash in their courtrooms before the killing were made aware of his extensive New Jersey criminal history. His 18 prior arrests across the Hudson River included charges of robbery, carjacking and burglary, authorities said.
The judges who presided over Nash’s New York cases before the killing could have set bail, but did not. It’s a common practice in misdemeanor cases, like the ones Nash faced after a Sept. 28, 2021, assault case where he punched a man at a subway turnstile and a Jan. 6 arrest for criminal mischief and escaping police custody.
An April 2021 report by the Center for Court Innovation claims city judges imposed bail in just 7.8% of all misdemeanor cases in 2019, before state lawmakers passed the reforms. Defendants were remanded in less than 1% of those cases.
During Nash’s last appearance on Jan. 7 in the lower Manhattan courthouse — just a 10-minute walk from Lee’s apartment — Bragg’s office charged him with breaking MetroCard machines at three stations, trying to escape from a police van and other nonviolent offenses.
Judge Herb Moses issued supervised release at prosecutors’ request, requiring Nash to periodically check in with the courts as his case played out.
Five weeks later, he was back on a murder charge.
Nash allegedly stalked and stabbed Lee, 35, to death as horrified neighbors called police after hearing her screams. A criminal complaint recounted how Nash forced his way into her sixth-floor apartment, where police found the slain designer naked from the waist up inside the bathroom and Nash hiding under her bed.
A yellow-handled knife was recovered at the scene and the complaint alleged that Nash earlier feigned a woman’s voice from inside the apartment, insisting there was no need for the police.
At a vigil outside Lee’s apartment, Derek Perkinson of the National Action Network said that the missing component in the bail system was support for people once released.
“We all let her down,” Perkinson said of Lee. “They’re just waiting for individuals to commit crimes to end up putting them back in jail. What supervision are they doing? What are they performing for the individual to get them what’s needed? You can have a conversation with these individuals and see in one or two minutes they need help.”
The supervised release program is administered by Mayor Adams’ Office of Criminal Justice and CASES, which provides alternatives to incarceration. Neither addressed queries about Nash, leaving unanswered whether he complied with the terms of his release. His lawyers at Legal Aid declined to comment.
But this much is clear: Manhattan Justice Jay Weiner, who would later arraign Nash for the Lee murder, issued a Nov. 18 warrant for his arrest after Nash skipped a routine court appearance. It was not clear what steps, if any, authorities took to find him.
On Oct. 13, Nash appeared in a Manhattan courtroom with desk appearance tickets charging him with selling counterfeit subway rides on Sept. 23 and randomly punching a straphanger five days later inside the Grand Street subway station near Lee’s apartment building.
After hearing those cases, Judge Saul Stein released Nash with the consent of former DA Vance’s office.
The 62-year-old punching victim told The News in an interview on Tuesday that he felt authorities didn’t take a close enough look at Nash after the incident.
“They’re just letting people out of jail so fast,” said David Elliot.
Three judges — Moses, Stein and Weiner — had more to review than just Nash’s Manhattan arrest history when he appeared before them. Court records show New Jersey police had arrested him at least 18 times for various crimes, including burglary, carjacking and criminal mischief.
City judges may consider a defendant’s out-of-state record when deciding bail.
In one June 2019 incident, Nash allegedly ordered pizza from Papa Pats in Newark before ambushing the deliveryman with a second assailant already fitted with an ankle bracelet.
The criminal complaint describes the deliveryman being lured to the front entrance of a house by Nash or his accomplice, where the worker was whacked in the head from behind with a hard object and robbed of his wallet, driver’s license and VA card.
Authorities could have diverted Nash to a psychiatric evaluation or drug counseling. That did not happen, records show, despite court records recounting his history of smoking K2 — a toxic synthetic drug proven to cause hallucinations.
Repeated efforts to contact Nash’s family about the case were unsuccessful.
In remarks Thursday, Adams referenced legislation unrelated to the bail reform: Kendra’s Law, which authorizes the courts to order outpatient care for mentally ill people in the system struggling to follow prescribed treatment.
“We need to really reexamine how we are dealing with individuals who are showing imminent danger to themselves and others,” the mayor said. “The goal we must always do is find out when you have an action like this — let’s do a deep dive, what were the warning signs, what should we have looked for?”
But Adams also said he did not have any details about Nash’s mental health.
“I’m not sure if there was a real mental health history of this gentleman that carried this crime, but we need to look at that, examine that,” he said.
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