'18 STAB SLAY MA BLASTS BRAGG
‘Violated my rights as crime victim’
A mother whose Army vet son was stabbed to death in Harlem in 2018 rips Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in an open letter over his decision to offer plea deals to two defendants in the case.
Madeline Brame, who sent the letter to Bragg and Gov. Hochul, said the DA didn’t communicate with her before deciding to offer the plea deals, which let one of the defendants off on time served.
“You violated my rights as a crime victim to be fully informed, and to be heard,” Brame wrote in the letter sent Thursday.
“Why would you dismiss murder charges against half of the participants, when the murder and their roles were caught on video?”
Brame’s son Hason Correa, a then-35-year-old married dad of three, was allegedly beaten and stabbed to death in October 2018 by a group of assailants — Travis Stewart, Mary Saunders and her two brothers, James and Chris Saunders.
Prosecutors said the brawl started after Mary heard that Hason and his dad, Wesley Correa, her neighbors at the time, had beaten up her family friend with a glass bottle.
Mary, James and Chris Saunders and their pal Stewart confronted the Correas inside an apartment building on West 152nd Street, and the fight then spilled out into the middle of the street.
James then allegedly took out a knife and stabbed Correa nine times, causing him to collapse and die. At the time, authorities alleged Mary, 41, had punched and kicked Correa before trying to pin him down while her brothers stabbed him and then chased after him when he attempted to escape.
Downgraded charges
However, during a May court hearing, Bragg’s prosecutors said they didn’t think they could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mary had intended to kill Correa or that she knew her brother had a knife. As part of her plea agreement, Mary pleaded guilty to a downgraded charge of felony assault and was allowed to go free on time served after she spent a year in jail as the case played out in court. Stewart was permitted to plead guilty to attempted gang assault and is slated to be sentenced to seven years on June 29 under a deal with Bragg’s office.
Brame slammed Bragg’s team, saying prosecutors didn’t consult with her before downgrading the charges. Prosecutors met with her at their Manhattan offices two days before the deal was finalized in court.
“Why did you not want the judge to hear our voice? Why did you not want the public to hear what our family thought about the dismissal of murder charges against two individuals who, the prior administration and homicide prosecutors said, were clearly responsible?” Brame wrote in the missive.