‘KILLER’ IS CLUELESS
Exclusive Rikers interview
The man charged with stalking Christina Yuna Lee and stabbing her to death in her Chinatown apartment believes he’ll get off scot-free — because there is no video footage of him killing her.
Assamad Nash, 25, is seen on surveillance video following Lee, 35, into her Chrystie Street building in February and pushing his way into her home, and he was found at the bloody murder scene hiding under a bed, authorities have alleged.
But in a 30-minute video interview from Rikers Island, Nash said he didn’t think that would be enough to put him away.
“First of all, they gotta have me on camera killing her. I’m not on camera touching her at all,” Nash said.
“They only got me on camera going into the building. That’s it. They ain’t got no camera showing me killing that lady.”
Nash said he was “trying to get into a mental-health program at the hospital” to beat the charges against him, and erupted from behind a glass wall at Rikers when questioned about the legal strategy.
“Listen! You’re not listening!” Nash shouted. “They gotta have you on camera killing her. They don’t got me on camera killing her. They only got me on camera following her into the building.”
Nash originally claimed another man had burst into Lee’s apartment and killed her. But in the jailhouse interview last week, he changed his account of the night Lee was sexually assaulted, stabbed with her own kitchen knife and left to bleed to death in her bathtub.
“She called me,” Nash said. “She invited me over for a party. She was having a party and she invited me over for a drink.”
When asked to describe the moments leading up to Lee’s killing, Nash shrugged.
“I was too high,” Nash said, adding he was under the influence of “dust and K2” he had bought at 125th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem.
“I don’t remember nothing. I told you. I wasn’t in my right state of mind. It’s crazy being on that stuff.”
Nash, who is charged with first-degree murder, burglary and sexually motivated burglary, said vaguely: “That situation happened. Then she died. And they told me I did that and all that crazy stuff, you know?”
Nash claimed that he met Lee in a park near her home and that the two would “chill and relax” together from time to time, which is what he said they were doing the night she was killed.
Asked why Lee, a successful and creative producer who worked at the digital music platform Splice, would invite the homeless, sky-high Nash into her home, he became irritated.
“I just told you,” he said. “She invited me.”
They only got me on camera going into the building. That’s it. They ain’t got no camera showing me killing that lady. — Murder suspect Assamad Nash, who’s accused of killing a woman in a Chinatown apartment
Night of the murder
Lee was returning home from a club on Feb. 13 when Nash began following her, police charge. Video shows Nash following the Korean-American woman and keeping his distance as she climbed six flights of stairs to her apartment.
Nash pushed his way inside once Lee reached her door and stabbed her to death with a yellow-handled knife from her own kitchen, authorities charge.
He tried to flee on a fire escape before turning back and scurrying under a bed, police sources told The Post.
The murder rocked the city amid a surge of violence against Asian New Yorkers.
Angela Lee, Christina’s sister, declined to comment.
Nash said he grew up in Newark, NJ, and had “mental problems” since childhood, but could not identify a specific diagnosis. He is currently on Remeron, an antidepressant, while in jail, he said.
He was mute as a child, he said, and his late older brother taught him how to talk. As an adult, he frequently slept on the streets or in homeless shelters, only sometimes staying with his mom. He has never held a job, he said. “I worked at a Taco Bell for about a week. That’s about it,” he said.
Still, he seemed to have a high opinion of himself.
“Listen, listen, I’m a good person,” he said. “I do a lot of music. And I got a lot of talent. You know, I can sing very good. I did a lot of good stuff for the city of New York. I help people out. I did a lot of good stuff, you know?”