February 14, 2022
NEW YORK CITY—Assamad Nash, a 25-year-old homeless serial criminal was ordered held without bail at his Monday night arraignment after prosecutors claimed the goblin-looking suspect stabbed Christina Yuna Lee more than 40 times.
Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Jay Weiner granted the district attorney’s request to remand Nash, who was charged with murdering the 35-year-old creative producer and leaving her savagely butchered inside her bathtub after following her home early Sunday morning, reports the New York Post.
Nash is also charged with sexually motivated burglary, which preludes to more gory and horrifying details on Lee’s final moments of life.
Nash attempted to deter police from entering Lee’s apartment by imitating a female voice, according to prosecutors.
UPDATE: 35YO victim is Korean American, just got out of cab. Suspect followed her up 6 flights of stairs. Neighbors heard screaming, called 911. Police found her w/ stab wounds throughout her body. Suspect is 25YO Assamad Nash. Homeless; arrested several times including assaults. https://t.co/f0zEt0GOxS pic.twitter.com/ovGpeEe6B3
— CeFaan Kim (@CeFaanKim) February 13, 2022
“We don’t need the police here—go away,” Nash told police as he barricaded himself inside the apartment for roughly an hour-and-a-half before NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit busted the door down, reports The Post.
Once inside, authorities found Lee dead in her bathroom, naked from the waist up with over 40 stab wounds. Nash was found hiding under her bed—a decision that matches the way he looks—with a stab wound to his torso and cuts to his hands and shoulder.
The murder weapon, a yellow-handled knife was found behind a dresser.
25YO Assamad Nash charged in the murder of 35YO Christina Yuna Lee in her Chinatown apartment. Cops say he followed her home then stabbed her; he's homeless and has 2 prior arrests for assault. NYPD says there's no indication of a hate crime. pic.twitter.com/oLRk2QcCaO
— CeFaan Kim (@CeFaanKim) February 14, 2022
Security footage showed Nash following Lee as she got out of a cab and entered her Chrystie Street apartment building. He followed Lee up six flights of stairs and into her apartment, reports ABC7.
At about 4:22 a.m., Yuna Lee was heard screaming for help and a male voice responded “calm down I have a gun,” according to The Post.
Christina Yuna Lee was still alive and crying out for assistance when police arrived at her building within just minutes of the first 911 calls from neighbors who heard the commotion.
Citizens around Lee were not armed with firearms and Nash murdered Lee with a knife. Logic would dictate the city of New York will begin steps to ban knife sales around the city—including kitchen knives.
Nash at one point, tried to flee down the fire escape before retreating back inside when he was spotted by police.
Nash has been arrested at least a dozen times in New York and New Jersey dating back to 2012 and was free at the time on supervised release on a January 6, 2022 arrest for criminal mischief. He was living at the Bowery Mission homeless shelter at the time of Sunday’s murder.
He is back in court this Thursday.
Feature Images via Linkedin & Daily Mail