NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- The man accused of stabbing several people at a Hanukkah gathering in Monsey last month is back in court today, as new reports suggest he's been well-known to police since 2002.
Grafton Thomas, who is facing both federal and state charges, wore an orange jumpsuit with a navy blue vest and was handcuffed and shackled as he stepped into the court room where he was arraigned Thursday on the state charges, which include six counts of attempted murder, WCBS 880's Mack Rosengerg reported.
Prosecutors wasted no time in attacking the credibility of Thomas' attorney, Michael Sussman, who they say was present at the search of a cabin Thomas once lived in.
Sussman doesn't deny it.
"I believe given the realitive proximity in time that there might be relevant information there. I asked whether the mother still had a key, which she did, and I said, 'let's go.' I had no idea whether federal or state authorities had or had not been there. I had no way to know that. We went and I found what I've characterized as a trove of important information, which we're reviewing," he said.
Sussman is requesting a search of the car Thomas was arrested in and a search of the synagogue where the attack occured.
Judge Kevin Russo is reserving a decision on that because one of the victims still lives there.
He did, however, agree to a state psychiatric evaluation of Thomas, but Sussman will have a doctor conduct an indepent one.
There is concern that Thomas may not be mentally fit to stand trial, Rosenberg reported. In Federal Court Monday, his attorney told a judge he doesn't believe Thomas fully understands the charges against him.
Thomas has pleaded not guilty to both the state charges of attempted murder and other offenses and federal hate crime charges.
Dating back to 2002, Thomas has been well-known to the Greenwood Lake Police Department, Rosenberg reported. Documents obtained by the New York Post show he's been arrested at least twice -- once in 2007, when police said he knocked on the car door of a man and attacked him on a highway.
Several other times in Rockland, Thomas was seen doing suspiscious things, police said, like looking inside parked cars outside a restaurant and banging on the door of a home, before asking a woman there if he could take things from her garbage.
Thomas, 37, is accused of attacking five Orthodox Jews with an 18-inch machete at a rabbi’s home on Dec. 28.
Josef Neumann, 72, is among the victims in the stabbing attack and while others have been released, he remains in critical condition in a coma.
The father of seven’s family says his skull was penetrated by the machete and if he ever does wake up from that coma, doctors are afraid he may have permanent brain damage, leaving him paralyzed and speech impaired for the rest of his life. He was also cut three times on the head, once on the neck and his right arm, in the words of his family, "was shattered."
"The doctors do not have high hopes for him... If he wakes up he may never be able to walk, talk or even process speech again," Neumann's daughter, Nicky Kohen, said, adding that the family isn't giving up hope. "As a family we all believe that God has a plan."