Prosecutors in New York City are seeking to dismiss murder charges against a bodega worker who fatally stabbed a man who physically assaulted him over a bag of chips.
According to court records, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office requested a judge on Tuesday to dismiss the charges against 61-year-old Jose Alba, who said he was acting in self-defense during the stabbing.
After charging Alba, Bragg drew considerable opposition, including criticism from the city’s mayor, who said the bodega worker was certainly justified in protecting himself.
On July 1, Alba, who was facing a second-degree murder charge, stabbed Austin Simon in the neck and chest while working at the Blue Moon deli.
The convenience store clerk in Hamilton Heights was shoved into a stack of shelves by Simon, 37, who then stepped behind the counter and grabbed him, according to surveillance video.
Only then did Alba move over to a shelf and take a knife out of her pocket to defend herself.
Alba was allegedly stabbed by Simon’s girlfriend during the confrontation after her benefits card was turned down. The girlfriend was never charged in connection with the event.
Tuesday’s motion to dismiss stated that prosecutors ‘have determined that we cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was not justified in his use of deadly physical force.’
The filing said that ‘a homicide case against Alba could not be proven at trial beyond a reasonable doubt’ and that the case will not be presented to a grand jury.
Simon’s cousin Candra Simon criticized the decision to drop the charges against Alba, and said that it sets a ‘dangerous precedent’.
‘We are all clearly disappointed and can’t understand how it’s OK to take an unarmed man’s life,’ said Candra Simon, according to the New York Times.
On Tuesday, Alba’s defence attorney did not immediately respond to a message from DailyMail.com requesting comment.
After charging Alba, District Attorney Bragg faced harsh criticism, notably from Mayor Eric Adams.
The progressive DA’s decision to withdraw charges will need to be authorised by a judge, but it is likely that Alba’s legal odyssey is over.
Since video emerged showing Simon – who has already been convicted for other attacks – pushing Alba into a shelf and pulling him, there has been rising pressure on Bragg to dismiss the accusations against Alba.
The video shows the two arguing before Alba got his knife and began stabbing Simon.
Other recordings obtained by DailyMail.com depict Simon, who was on parole for assaulting a police officer at the time of his death, approaching Alba from behind the bodega counter.
‘Papa, I don’t want a problem, papa,’ Alba told him calmly.
Simon charged into the Blue Moon convenience store minutes after his girlfriend tried to buy a bag of chips for her daughter, but her electronic benefits card had been declined.
The woman, who claimed Alba snatched the bag of chips from the child, is heard on the video asking Alba, ‘Did you put food?’
Alba responds that he’ll try her card another time.
‘OK, mama, let me do it another time. My God,’ he says to her as she insists, ‘There’s money on there.’
But he swipes the EBT card multiple times and hands it back to her, saying it’s not working.
The edited footage cuts to show other customers in the bodega as the woman is heard yelling out of view from the camera.
‘You can’t touch my daughter. Don’t snatch that out of my daughter, you f–king piece of shit!’
The woman had reported that Alba snatched the bag of chips from her daughter’s hands when they couldn’t pay.
She continues, ‘I’m gonna bring my n– down here and he gonna f–k you up. My n— is gonna come down here right now and f–k you up!’
Alba tells her it’s not his fault and the card wasn’t working.
Another woman asked, ‘Did they take something from you?’ Alba replied, ‘No, I take it back.’
Simon can then be seen on the video storming into the store and walking behind the counter where he confronts Alba.
‘What’s up with you? N****r what is wrong with you?’ he yells at him.
It is then that Simon pushes Alba into the shelf. According to court filings, Alba responded by stabbing Simon in the heart, lung, and jugular vein.
In the new video footage, it cuts to show a bloodied Simon splayed out on the bodega floor and his girlfriend is heard yelling, ‘That was over $3. Three f**king dollars. He snatched something out of my daughter…please help him.’
According to sources, the girlfriend was not prosecuted with assaulting the shop worker because authorities believe she was defending her lover.
Following the confrontation, Simon was taken to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead; Alba was imprisoned on murder charges on the city’s infamous Riker’s Island.
He was originally imprisoned on a $250,000 bond, but the district attorney’s office reduced it to $50,000 in response to the rising outrage.
Among those who backed Alba was New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who even went to the bodega to show his support.
‘I’m a person that’s there for people following the law. I saw from the video, I saw a voter here inside the store following the law…It’s time for New Yorkers and Americans to start standing up for people who follow the law,’ he said.
Republican gubernatorial nominee Lee Zeldin also slammed Bragg’s decision to charge Alba, tweeting: ‘My first Day 1 action as Governor next January will be to fire Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.’
Alba’s fellow bodega workers said they will not let him return to work because they fear the victim’s friends will come to harm him.
‘We’re not letting him come back,’ a Blue Moon Convenience store worker named ‘Wilson’ told the New York Post.
Wilson said the ‘friends and family’ of the slain man now know where Alba works and his coworkers fear it’s a ‘death sentence’ if he returns to his post.