Say susp in 3 eatery slays is fit for trial

A man accused of killing three workers with a hammer in a bias-fueled attack at a Brooklyn seafood restaurant has been found fit to stand trial, a judge announced Monday.

Wearing an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs in Brooklyn Criminal Court, suspect Arthur Martunovich (photo) stared straight ahead and said nothing as Judge Danny Chun announced the finding.

Chun gave Martunovich’s defense lawyer, Edward Mandery of Brooklyn Defender Services, until March 27 to review the finding with an expert before deciding whether to challenge it in court.

Martunovich is charged with murder as a hate crime for bludgeoning to death three workers in the unprovoked Jan. 15 rampage at the Seaport Buffet in Sheepshead Bay.

Witnesses told police and the Daily News that he spared Hispanic employees, telling them he had a problem with Asians.

Chef Fufai Pun, 32, died at the scene.

The manager, Kheong NgThang, 61, died three days later and Pun’s uncle, chef and coowner Tsz Mat Pun, 50, died Jan. 24.

Mandery said he did not believe the hate crime charges against his client were warranted.

“I understand why they were charged — you understand because of the conduct,” he sad. “But if you’re not fit and you’re not thinking properly, then how can you say someone is acting on the basis of race if they’re not even able to comprehend what they’re doing?”

Mandery told reporters that there’s a distinction between the finding that Martunovich is fit to stand trial and what his mental state might have been on the day of the bloody attack.

“He’s been treated by doctors and medicated professionally for over a month,” said Mandery.

“This is just whether he’s fit now, that’s all,”

Martunovich is being held in the Bellevue Hospital psychiatric prison ward as he awaits trial.

In February he was arraigned by videoconference from Bellevue.