Shoved man’s aunt begged him to stay away from subway
The aunt of a man who was shoved to his death March 25 under the wheels of an uptown 4 subway train in Harlem said Friday she had warned him to stay off the trains.
“He f---ing murdered my nephew,” Jason Volz’s aunt, Christine Conte, told the News after a court hearing Friday. “My heart is torn apart. My nephew, my sweet pea, that I raised.”
Conte, 70, said she brought up Volz and was his caretaker for years.
Now, he’s “lying on a stiff table” in a morgue, the distraught aunt said. She and her son spent all day in Manhattan Criminal Court Friday waiting for a glimpse of Carlton McPherson, the man accused of shoving their beloved nephew and cousin onto the tracks.
Volz, 54, died at the scene of severe injuries to his face and body. Police officers found him under a train car.
“I wanted to see his expression,” Conte said. “I wanted to see when they would say things to him, how he was gonna react. Was he going to smile? Was he going to make noises? Talk, laugh? I just wanted to see, the curiosity.”
McPherson, 24, is facing murder charges for the random attack at the 125th St. station. He had his appearance waived at the Friday afternoon hearing, so he was not present in court.
Outside the courtroom, Conte recounted their last conversation, over the phone on Saturday, when he told her he was excited to take a new gal pal out on a date. She said she warned Volz to stay off the trains, but he reassured her that he’d be all right.
“He said to me, ‘I’ll be fine.’ ”
“I heard all the accidents going on,” Conte said tearfully, referencing a spat of violent incidents on the subway. “I was petrified for him. I worried like crazy for him. ‘Jason, don’t go on the effing trains, please, there’s so many killers.’ ”
McPherson’s older brother and several other family members were at court Friday. They brushed off reporters as they exited the courtroom.
After the hearing wrapped up, Conte’s son called McPherson a “killer” within earshot of McPherson’s family, in a slightly chaotic scene.
McPherson has a history of mental illness. At his arraignment Tuesday, he entered court with his head down and appeared disoriented, making high-pitched squealing sounds and spitting on the floor.
Conte said she raised Volz, who lived with her for years. He affectionately called her “Aunt Beans,” a family nickname, and would frequently drop in to see her at her Forest Hills home after shifts at his carpenter job in Woodhaven.
“It’s a f---ing nightmare,” Conte said. “I can’t sleep. I keep picturing him.”
McPherson’s next court date is April 15, where he’ll face a Supreme Court arraignment on a grand jury indictment.