The homeless woman accused of slamming a cellist in the head in the New York City subway had her case delayed to September on Wednesday.
Amira Hunter, 23, came from jail today and smiled nonstop throughout her court hearing in Manhattan. She showed up wearing an orange jumpsuit and a pair of mitten-like restraints on her already cuffed hands.
The expectation was that she was going to change her official plea from ‘not guilty’ to ‘guilty’ in relation to charges she faces for allegedly battering Iain Forrest, 29, at the 34th Street Herald Square Station several months ago.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office was offering her a lower sentence in exchange for a guilty plea, but that didn’t happen.
Molly Kamus, Hunter’s public defense attorney, instead introduced a brand new, roughly 1000-page document that the prosecution said it hasn’t yet reviewed.
To give prosecutors the time they need to pore over this document, Hunter’s case was pushed back two months, her next hearing scheduled for September 18.
Amira Hunter is pictured striding into court Wednesday all smiles. Her grinning persisted throughout the 25-minute hearing
Hunter’s defense lawyer requested she be released with an ankle monitor to go live with her mother. Judge Gregory Carro denied this request and sent her back to jail
The contents of the document were not revealed.
The defense also requested that Hunter, who is currently in jail pending her next court date, be screened for an ankle monitor so she could be released into the custody of her mother.
Hunter’s mother reportedly wanted to attend Wednesday’s proceedings but couldn’t be there due to work.
Judge Gregory Carro denied this ask from the defense and remanded Hunter back to jail.
Hunter’s behavior during the 25-minute hearing was bizarre but not atypical for her.
Similar to her court appearance in April, Hunter was seen beaming at the reporters in the room.
After the judge asked her how old she was, she took the opportunity to happily declare that her birthday was coming up in six months and that she was a Sagittarius.
DailyMail.com reached out to Hunter’s defense attorney.
After the judge asked her how old she was, Hunter took the opportunity to happily declare that her birthday was coming up in six months and that she was a Sagittarius
Hunter faces an assault charge and a criminal weapon possession charge. Right now, she has technically pleaded not guilty, but the expectation is that she will reverse and plead guilty if everything goes according to plan in her upcoming September hearing
Hunter is pictured in April at her arraignment, where she mistakenly blurted out that she was guilty when asked for her plea
Hunter’s most recent brush with the law began on February 13, when she allegedly whacked Iain Forrest over the head with a water bottle while he played his electric cello at the at the 34th Street Herald Square Station.
The brazen attack was caught on video, and it showed a bundled-up woman believed to be Hunter walking over to Forrest.
She’s seen picking up a metal water bottle he’d set on the ground earlier and smashed him with it as he was playing Titanium by Sia.
The bottle clattered to the ground as he clutched his head in pain and it left the musician fearing for his life.
Hunter was arrested on February 28 and appeared in court the following day where Manhattan assistant district attorney Alexandra Roberston asked the judge to set bail at $50,000 due to the fact the defendant was charged with a violent felony.
‘The cellist was playing before the defendant came from behind and struck him in the back of the head unprovoked,’ Roberston told the court.
Hunter’s defense attorney at the time, Joseph Conza, recommended supervised release, just like Kamus did today.
And instead of denying it like Judge Carro did today, Judge Marva Brown ordered for her to be released under supervision and sent to a shelter.
Iain Forrest, 29, said he’s done performing on subway platforms after he was attacked twice in one year
The medical student and performer was attacked on the evening of February 13 at the 34th Street Herald Square Station. Forrest said the suspect fled the station and escaped into a nearby Macy’s, evading NYPD officers
Forrest was playing electric cello in a Manhattan subway station when he was bludgeoned over the head with a metal water bottle
Judge Brown cited a lack of significant criminal history in her refusal of prosecutors’ demands for a $50,000 bond for the felony offense.
Prior to the attack on Forrest, Hunter had seven previous arrests and active bench warrants for not showing up to court.
Mere days after her release, Hunter was arrested on suspicion of stealing a $235 Moncler baseball hat from a Nordstrom store in Midtown.
Forrest, a member of the MTA’s Music Under New York program, has stopped performing in the subway since he was brutalized.
‘[I]t does kind of break my heart that this is something that has to stop indefinitely, barring some sort of systemic change with protection for performances in the subway,’ he said in an Instagram post.
And it wasn’t even the first time he was attacked in the subway.
A man beat and choked him and broke his electric cello’s battery before making off with both his cash and the instrument last May.
‘That has been happening too much, and it’s almost been normalized as an acceptable “risk” to essentially this occupation,’ Forrest said. ‘I think that’s something that should be brought attention to and should be tracked better in terms of the numbers and where these things are happening.’
‘I’ve got a wife. I’ve got a family and friends that care about me and I don’t know what they would do if I was gone.’
