A man that was charged with fatally stabbing a stranger, during a fight outside the Port Authority subway station last week, is roaming free on the streets.
Thanks to a Manhattan judge, who set a paltry $100k bail in the murder case, the man was released even after prosecutors objected.
Jesus Ramirez, 28, was freed from Rikers Island Saturday after having to float just 10 percent of a $100,000 partially secured bond for the caught-on-camera slaying of 49-year-old Guarionex Torres in Hell’s Kitchen.
Ramirez was arraigned before Acting Supreme Court Justice Suzanne Adams earlier that day on charges of second-degree murder and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon in Torres’ death.
Authorities discovered Ramirez near the scene on Friday, shirtless and covered in his victim’s blood, according to the criminal complaint against him and law enforcement sources.
“He attacked me first. I stabbed him,” Ramirez said to the officers.
Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office requested that Ramirez be held behind bars without bail in the case, but Adams instead set the monetary bail.
Authorities said the brutal clash was set off when Ramirez and Torres apparently bumped into each other at West 44th Street and Eighth Avenue just before 1 a.m. on Friday.
Authorities reported that Ramirez, who has no known criminal history, used a knuckle knife blade to slash and stab the unarmed Torres.
Torres was left with a gash from his right ear to his left cheek, cuts to his neck and arm, and a stab wound in his torso.
Authorities found the victim laying face down in a pool of his own blood with parts of his body hanging off.
A source said, “Ramirez stabbed the guy to death, mutilated him with brass knuckles with a knife in the middle. Slashed the guy and hit all the organs. He had to know what he was doing. It was very gruesome.”
Authorities reported, Torres had apparently approached Ramirez while riding on a CitiBike, and the two were then seen on surveillance footage exchanging words.
Then all of a sudden Ramirez lunged at Torres and stabbed him. He instantly fled on foot after attacking Torres, leaving the victim mortally wounded on the ground and struggling to hold on to his life.
Police quickly responded to two 911 calls pertaining to the attack. They later found the surveillance footage and started investigating.
Cops found the knife in Ramirez’s pocket after arresting him.
Torres was rushed to Bellevue hospital where he was pronounced dead.
A spokesman for the Office of Court Administration said in a prepared statement that “many factors” go into a judge’s decision when setting bail, which under New York state law “is solely meant to ensure the defendant’s return to court. Nothing else.”
“Our criminal justice reform laws predispose against pretrial incarceration and give the arraigning judge narrow discretion, even on violent felony offences, while requiring them,” the statement said.
Torres has more than 30 prior arrests. Just two weeks ago, he was busted for swinging a hatchet at people near the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
Ramirez is due back in court Aug. 31.
A woman who co-signed his bond is listed as an employee at Bright Horizons, a childcare provider, who came up with the $10,000 in cash to secure the bond.
Ramirez will be represented by his defense attorney, Michael B. Schulman.
Prior to her election to the bench in November 2017, Adams worked as a litigator in New York and federal courts for some 20 years, according to her official biography.
The justice previously received pushback from alleged victims in 2018 for a no-bail decision, where she allowed self-described schizophrenic Roy Rodriguez to be released after he was arrested for threatening to kill his downstairs neighbor with a brick.
What the hell kind of crap is this. The man s/b locked up. More than thirty arrests. Swung a hatchet at port personal. And he is out on the street again. Look at the viscousness of this attack. Cut from right ear to left cheek. He was out for blood. I know he is going to do it again.
Not that the killer should be granted that bail, the killer has no criminal history… it’s the dead guy had 30 arrests and swung the hatchet. But the simple fact that this guy was carrying that deadly weapon is enough to have held him, never mind the gruesomeness of the killing.
According to the story, the dead person (Torres) is the one who had the 30 charges and swinging the axe, the one arrested (Ramirez) supposedly had no criminal history. So Torres won’t be getting arrested anymore, but the Judge should not have set the bond that low, if a bond should have been set at all
This is the America democrats are voting for.
Are these the illegal alien immigrants that the Texas governor is sending to the big apple? NYC has a roller coaster ride ahead of them.
The hatchet guy got killed. As long as they’re doing this to each other, they’re helping clean up NYC.
With the way people who commit violent crimes are released back on the streets it’s a wonder we don’t have more vigilantism to exact justice.
To find out that the man who got killed has 30 arrests and only two weeks before he was killed had been swinging an axe at people in or near a bus terminal.. Make’s me think the other guy may have known him and how violent he was and did it in self defense. It does read the man who killed Torres has no prior arrest that they knew of.
Maybe this guy should get a medal.