NYC woman fatally bashed man with table leg 29 times, fabricated rape: prosecutors
A woman accused of beating to to death a man she’d just smoked crack with on a Harlem street bashed her victim in the head with a discarded table leg 30 times and then fabricated a rape claim, Manhattan prosecutors said Thursday.
After allegedly killing the victim around 4:20 a.m. Tuesday, Sabrina Charles, 39, removed the man’s pants in an attempt to rob him of his public benefits card and the $200 he had in his pockets, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Chelsea Colabro said in Manhattan Criminal Court. The victim’s pants were found in Charles’ handbag, cops said.
Charles stayed at the scene and attempted to move her victim’s blood-stained body, Colabro said. She also tried to change her appearance by removing her shirt, wearing only a black sports bra, and undoing her hair, she said.
Charles and her victim, who cops have not yet been able to identify, had just smoked crack together and Charles had performed a sex act on Hancock Place near W. 124th St. before she attacked him, Colabro said.
The victim was still on the ground, lighting his crack pipe, when Charles came up from behind and hit him in the head with the table leg, the prosecutor said.
“The defendant hits the victim again approximately 29 more times,” Colabro said.
Medics took the victim to Mount Sinai Morningside but he could not be saved. He is s believed to be in his 40s,
When a witness saw Charles standing over the victim’s body and asked what happened Charles claimed the man she killed had dragged her down the street and tried to rape her — an allegation disproven by surveillance video that includes audio, prosecutors said.
She encouraged the victim to follow her between two parked cars, where she consensually engaged in a sex act before killing him, prosecutors charge
The video also shows Charles demanded the victim give her more money for the crack they smoked. She falsely claimed to authorities later that he had not paid her at all, according to prosecutors.
When cops arrived, she tried to duck behind cars and garbage bags in an attempt to run away. She didn’t stop trying to get away until officers threatened to taze her, prosecutors said.
“(She) made efforts to evade apprehension and then concocted a false story,” Colabro said.
Charles, who has an extensive criminal history with 14 arrests, was charged with murder and weapons possession for the Tuesday morning killing. Judge Denise Dominguez ordered Charles held without bail.
Charles’ defense attorney declined to speak to reporters after the hearing.
