CHILLING STALK CLAIM
C’town ‘killer’: I tried to help
The sicko accused of butchering 35-year-old Christina Yuna Lee in her Chinatown apartment claimed he was “trying to help the lady,” it was revealed Wednesday — as he was indicted in the brutal slaying.
Assamad Nash, 25, remained stone-faced as he was arraigned in Manhattan Supreme Court on charges of murder, burglary and sexually motivated burglary in the heinous Feb. 13 crime. He pleaded not guilty through his attorney Wednesday afternoon (inset) after initially refusing to come to court in the morning.
Nash, a homeless man with past robberies and petit crimes on his rap sheet, allegedly followed Lee, a Korean-American creative producer, into her home and stabbed her to death with her own kitchen knife.
New court documents reveal how Nash allegedly claimed to cops he was a victim, too, after they busted into Lee’s apartment at 111 Chrystie St. and found him hiding under the mattress. “I was trying to help this female getting hurt by other people. I was trying to help the lady,” he told cops. He claimed the attacker stabbed him in the leg before escaping.
Chilling surveillance video allegedly showed Nash trailing Lee as she walked up six flights of stairs to her apartment at around 4:20 a.m., making sure to stay a floor behind her. When she opened her apartment door, the creep ran up and pushed his way in, prosecutors said.
The victim fought fiercely for her life, leaving her attacker with cuts to his body.
Officers arrived in just a few minutes but couldn’t get inside, Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran said in court.
Nash, meanwhile, tried to flee using the apartment’s fire escape but went back inside after a police officer on the roof spotted him.
Speaking to cops through the door, Nash tried to get them to “go away,” claiming he was alone and didn’t need help, the filings state.
Police busted the door open at around 5:40 a.m. and discovered Lee in the bathroom covered in blood — with more than 40 stab wounds to her torso, head and neck, according to prosecutors.
“The victim was naked from the waist up and none of her property had been touched,” Yoran said.
The bloodied yellow-handled knife was found hidden behind a dresser.
Nash, who also suffered stab wounds, was hauled into an ambulance, where he acted worried for his alleged victim, asking a cop if she was OK and saying something like, “We were partying and the dude escaped,” the court docs state.