Michelle Alyssa Go murder: Alleged NYC subway shover mentally unfit for trial
Martial Simon, charged with second degree murder of Michelle Alyssa Go, was remanded into state psychiatric custody and his trial was suspended
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The homeless man charged with killing a young New York City woman months ago when he pushed her in front of an oncoming subway train in Times Square was ruled not mentally fit to stand trial and will be sent to a psychiatric facility indefinitely following a Tuesday court hearing.
Martial Simon, charged with second degree murder in the deadly shoving of 40-year-old Deloitte consultant Michelle Alyssa Go, was declared unfit to stand trial by psychiatrists at Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan last month, according to the New York Times.
But the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office had requested time to review the decision. The 61-year-old Simon was previously denied bond and has been held at Bellevue since his arrest on Jan. 15
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MICHELLE ALYSSA GO: ACCUSED NYC SUBWAY SHOVER HELD WITHOUT BAIL AS COPS PROBE FOR RACIAL BIAS
Michelle Go, left, and Simon Martial, right, being arrested in January. (LinkedIn, WNYW)
During the court hearing Tuesday, Manhattan prosecutors decided not to contest the psychiatrists’ finding and Simon was remanded to the custody of the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene until he is fit to stand, WABC-TV reported. Simon was not present at the hearing. His case is now suspended until further notice.
Simon’s lawyer, H. Mitchell Schuman, told the Times that he expected his client to be transported to either Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on Wards Island off Manhattan or to Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center, about 65 miles or an hour’s drive northwest of New York City.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}New York Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a candlelight vigil in honor of Michelle Alyssa Go, a victim of a subway attack, in New York's Times Square, Jan. 18, 2022.
Hundreds of people gathered in Times Square in January to remember Go, who outside her professional life also spent time volunteering with the New York Junior League helping the homeless. Though the attack was not deemed a hate crime, it came amid an uptick in subway-related crime in the Big Apple, as well as seemingly random acts of violence against Asian Americans.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul both had vowed that homeless outreach and police presence in the subways would be stepped up dramatically.
Still, Simon’s trial was suspended Tuesday less than a week after the Brooklyn subway attack that left at least 29 people injured, including ten people shot. The suspect in that incident, Frank James, had previously lamented on social media about how Adams and New York City’s mental health programs had failed him.
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The Times reported that Simon was a former cab driver and parking lot manager who began to show signs of schizophrenia in his 30s and spent decades moving between hospitals to jails to outpatient programs to the streets. His prior criminal record includes two convictions for attempting to rob cab drivers and a 2019 charge of possessing a crack pipe, but he was ruled unfit for trial in that case.
In 2017, the Times said records show Simon told a psychiatrist at a state-run hospital it was only a matter of time before he shoved a woman onto train tracks, but he was still released soon after.