The Lower East Side man accused of the violent Chinatown murder of a woman in her apartment early Sunday morning had been out on supervised release after being arrested three times in four months for an array of crimes, according to court records.
Assamad Nash, 25, of the Bowery faces murder and burglary charges for the Feb. 13 slaying of Christina Yuna Lee, 35, after allegedly following her into her residence on Chrystie Street and attacking her.
NYPD officers, after a brief standoff with Nash, located Lee in her bathroom; she had been stabbed multiple times about her body, and subsequently pronounced dead at the scene.
Nash was taken into custody without further incident; a murder charge likely means he’ll be held in custody without bail following his arraignment. However, court records noted that Nash has three other criminal cases pending against him, mostly for misdemeanors — but in each case, he was allowed to remain out of jail.
Following his most recent arrest in January, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Nash was granted by Judge Moses supervised release under “Tier 1, Level 3” of the Bail Reform Law’s supervision matrix — meaning that Nash was allowed to remain out on the streets provided he made one phone check-in and two in-person check-ins with his court-appointed supervisor every month.
The first case happened on Sept. 23, when Nash was picked up at the Grand Street subway station in Chinatown for unauthorized sale of a fare card — a class B misdemeanor.
Five days later, on Sept. 28, he was re-arrested on misdemeanor charges of assault, harassment and aggravated harassment; according to the criminal complaint provided by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Nash allegedly punched a man in the face at the corner of Chrystie and Grand Streets.
In both cases, Nash received a desk appearance ticket on Oct. 13, and was required to appear in court in November. But an arrest warrant for Nash was issued on Nov. 18, something that usually happens when a desk appearance ticket holder failing to show up for their court date.
Nash wound up being arrest a third time on Jan. 6, 2022 for repeatedly vandalizing MetroCard vending machines at several Manhattan subway stations — including Herald Square and Lower East Side-Second Avenue — throughout December, the criminal complaint noted. He was hit with 27 counts of criminal mischief, along with additional charges of resisting arrest and attempting to escape custody.
But despite the two previous arrests against him and an outstanding arrest warrant, Nash was released on “non-monetary restrictions” at his Jan. 7 arraignment in New York Criminal Court before Judge Herbert Moses.
At the time of his arrest Sunday for Lee’s murder, Nash was scheduled to appear in court on March 9 for the start of a criminal trial on the Dec. 8, 2021 case.
