Charges dropped in subway killing of Yonkers teenager
Criminal charges have been dropped in this summer’s fatal stabbing of a Yonkers 14-year-old on a Harlem subway platform.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office this month ended its manslaughter case against Kelvin Martinez, a 15-year-old who stabbed Ethan Reyes on July 9 at the 137th Street-City College train station.
A spokeswoman for the office said Thursday that prosecutors were not confident they could disprove beyond a reasonable doubt that Martinez was defending himself when he used his knife against Reyes. The decision was based on factors that included witness interviews and video surveillance, she said.
Reyes, 14, an aspiring drill rapper who went by the name Notti Osama, had only recently moved with his family to Young Avenue in Yonkers from Harlem. On the day of the stabbing, he and two friends were walking in his old neighborhood in Hamilton Heights when they spotted Martinez. Reyes grabbed a broom handle and the two followed Martinez into the subway station. They cornered him at the end of the platform and after Reyes hit him with the stick Martinez swung a knife, hitting Reyes in the abdomen.
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Martinez was then knocked onto the subway tracks and at some point suffered puncture wounds when one of Reyes’ friends swung a sharp object at him. Reyes collapsed on the platform and Martinez pulled himself off the tracks and ran off. Later that day his mother brought him to detectives.
Police had initially said they were charging Martinez with second-degree murder but prosecutors only filed a charge of first-degree manslaughter. As early as Martinez’ arraignment that week the prosecutor expressed reservations about the case and said investigators were looking into the teenager’s claims of self-defense and that he had been assaulted by associates of Reyes in the weeks leading up to the stabbing.
Court records in the case are sealed as a result of the dismissal and it was unclear who represented Martinez. A call to the Legal Aid Society in Manhattan was not returned.
Nobody was home at Reyes' home in Yonkers Friday morning and his family could not immediately be reached.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Notti Osama: Charges dropped in stabbing of Yonkers' Ethan Reyes
