NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Mayor Eric Adams went to Albany on Monday to push for changes to state criminal justice reforms—a visit that came a day after a woman was stalked and stabbed to death in her lower Manhattan apartment, allegedly by a man who’d been released without bail.
Adams told lawmakers that homeless suspect Assamad Nash, 25, was a “poster person for a failing system” and showed why changes to bail reform are necessary.
The mayor hoped to rework criminal justice reforms enacted in recent years, including the 2019 bail reform and 2017 “Raise the Age” laws, with lawmakers from the state Senate and Assembly. But he left the Capitol without a deal after failing to convince fellow Democrats to amend the laws.
Nash was charged with murder, burglary and sexually motivated burglary Monday in the killing of Christina Yuna Lee, 35, at her apartment on Chrystie Street in Chinatown early Sunday morning.
Nash is accused of following Lee up to her sixth-floor apartment and stabbing her more than 40 times. She was found dead and partially unclothed on the bathroom floor, while he was found hiding under a bed, according to prosecutors, who believe Nash planned to rob and sexually assault Lee. A yellow-handled knife was recovered from behind a dresser, a criminal complaint said.
Nash had three open court cases, including one for assault, and has a dozen arrests over the past decade. He was currently on supervised release for a Jan. 6 arrest on a criminal mischief charge for allegedly vandalizing multiple MetroCard machines.
The state’s 2019 bail reform law was intended to prevent people of limited means from being stuck in jail while awaiting trial for non-violent offenses. Critics say it has created a revolving door for repeat offenders and that judges no longer have the discretion to determine if someone like Nash poses a threat.
State lawmakers listened to Adams on Monday, but so far, they haven’t committed to changing bail reform. One source told the Daily News that Adams "got beat up pretty rough in there" after pressing Democratic lawmakers to make changes to the criminal justice reforms.
It appeared Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins wasn't on board with Adams. Speaking on NY1, she said a push to rein in bail reform is part of a “repetitive Republican national coordinated campaign of fear.”
“No matter where you go in the country, you know, they’re talking about bail reform and crime. Our bail reform is not the catalyst for a national uptick in crime,” she said.
Stewart-Cousins said lawmakers were “devastated with any criminal activity, and certainly people who are the victims of crime, but it’s just become kind of an easy talking point to say ‘bail reform,’ as though no bail for misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies is somehow related to the spike.”
Adams said he’d use his recently unveiled anti-crime plan to keep the city safe, with or without the support of the Democrat-controlled state legislature.
“If I am not getting the things I laid out in the blueprint, I still have the obligation to keeping the city safe. That’s why we’re putting in place our anti-gun unit,” the mayor said from the state Capitol. “I can’t turn around and say, ‘Well I didn’t get help from different places, so now my city’s not safe.’ Nope. I’m not accepting that. We’re going to have a safe city.”
Meanwhile, a rally was planned Tuesday outside the apartment where Lee was murdered. The Korean American Association of Greater New York planned the rally for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Sara D. Roosevelt Park, where a previous rally was held Monday.
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