Vagrant-slay suspect pulling back guilty plea
Trevon Murphy, the serial stabbing suspect accused of attacking three homeless men and killing one as they slept in 2022, moved to withdraw his guilty plea Tuesday, just as he was scheduled to be sentenced to 30 years to life in prison, authorities said.
Murphy’s lawyer Kevin Michael Canfield said Murphy, 40, was “severely unmedicated and mentally ill” when he pleaded guilty to murder, attempted murder and assault charges earlier this year.
“He’s mentally ill with a lack of psychotropic medication,” Canfield told a judge in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“No one investigated this, but in 2016, he was hospitalized for psychiatric treatment. Prior counsel filed a notice of intent to offer psychiatric evidence at trial. Prosecution didn’t respond to that motion.”
He also said that the defendant did not admit his guilt, and “could not remember” the details.
Prosecutors disagreed, saying Murphy knew what he was doing.
“It’s clear that he understood the court’s questions,” said Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Shilpa Kalra. Prosecutors have until April 17 to respond to Murphy’s attempt to withdraw his plea; a decision is expected May 8
Cops and prosecutors said Murphy (inset) attacked sleeping homeless men during a summer stabbing spree that began on July 5 inside Hudson River Greenway Park near W. 11th St. and West St.
There, a man was sleeping on a bench when an assailant knifed the victim in the stomach, cops said. The bleeding victim staggered through the park, collapsing about seven blocks away. Medics rushed the man to Bellevue Hospital, where he died.
Days later, another homeless man sleeping on a bench in Midtown near Madison Ave. and E. 49th St. was stabbed in the stomach in a sneak attack, officials said. He was not seriously injured, but sought medical attention two days later at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell.
A third homeless man was knifed in the stomach as he slept on a bench at the Stanley Isaacs Playground at 95th St. and the FDR Drive in Yorkville, police said. He was taken to Metropolitan Hospital in stable condition.
Murphy, who is also homeless, was busted days later when an ex-city Department of Correction officer spotted him at a Harlem bus stop, police said.
“Trevon Murphy brutally murdered one unhoused individual and critically injured two others in a series of late-night attacks,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg after Murphy’s January plea deal.
“Those who are unhoused already face extreme hardships and vulnerability, and their safety should not be in jeopardy.”
Prosecutors said Murphy later told officers after his arrest that he chose the same target location on each victim, the lower abdomen, which he called the “stabber’s choice.” Officials said the attacker also specifically selected a serrated blade capable of gutting his victims.
The incidents were eerily similar to a cold-blooded murder spree by a killer accused of targeting homeless victims in Washington and New York.
In March 2022, 30-year-old D.C. resident Gerald Brevard allegedly killed one homeless man and wounded two others in the nation’s capital before heading to New York and killing one sleeping man and wounding another, law enforcement officials said.