| See also here. |
A Manhattan judge on Thursday lowered the sky-high bail on a bodega worker who was charged with murder after fending off a Jose Alba, 62, was being held on Rikers Island on $250,000 bail in the Friday night caught-on-video attack. The amount was reduced to $50,000, with Alba’s family and his boss coming up with the $5,000 needed to spring him on a bond.
Alba’s attorney, Danielle Jackson of Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, assured the judge that her client was going nowhere.
"He has every intention to return to court and defend this case," Jackson said.
Prosecutors with District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office had initially requested that Alba be held on $500,000 bail at his arraignment Saturday, citing a planned trip to the Dominican Republic next week as proof that he was a flight risk.
But prosecutors changed their tune at Thursday’s hearing.
"We believe the surrender of his passport, as well as the electronic monitoring and the restriction that he may not leave the five boroughs, will ensure the fact that defendant will not go to the DR as he planned to," said Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sigall.
Alba, 51, was manning the counter at Hamilton Heights Grocery on Broadway when Austin Simon, a 35-year-old career criminal and ex-con, stormed behind the counter and shoved him into a wall, the video shows.
Austin Simon, aspiring rapper?
Simon then grabs Alba as the frightened clerk tries to get past him. Alba then grabs a knife and plunges it into Simon at least five times.
Simon’s girlfriend then pulls a knife from her purse and stabs Alba three times in the shoulder.
Alba, bloodied and still holding the knife, is seen waiting for police to arrive — only to have them arrest him and take him into custody.
In court, Manhattan prosecutors charged Alba with second-degree murder, but refused to file charges against Simon’s girlfriend for stabbing the bodega worker.
More than 20 relatives and supporters packed the courtroom for the video-feed court hearing in support of the beleaguered bodega worker.
At his arraignment Saturday, the DA’s office asked for $500,000 bail, but Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Eric Schumacher set bail at $250,000 cash or a $500,000 bond.
| Related: GoFundMe deletes page for NYC bodega clerk who fatally stabbed attacker |