A crazed racist who allegedly fatally stabbed a black man in Manhattan backed out of a plea deal Friday in court.
James Jackson, 30, had planned to plead guilty to slaughtering stranger Timothy Caughman, 66, in Midtown March 20, 2017.
But, after hobbling into the courtroom on crutches with a bandaged right foot, he had a change of heart.
Justice Laura Ward asked: “ Although you were prepared to plead guilty to all six counts today and to allocate to each of the counts, due to an injury you sustained in custody, you are currently under pain meds and you do not feel comfortable doing that?”
“That is correct,” replied Jackson, as Caughman’s family and friends gasped.
In an unusual move, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. intended to stand on the case and was seated at the prosecution’s table.
The spurned deal would have seen Jackson locked up for life, the same sentence he’d face if convicted of the top count at trial.
In a crime that horrified New Yorkers, Jackson plunged a knife into Caughman’s back while he was stooped over a pile of trash, scavenging for cans and bottles, on West 36th Street near Ninth Avenue, according to authorities.
After Caughman fell on the ground, Jackson allegedly stabbed him in the chest repeatedly then fled. Caughman died that night at Bellevue.
After the Maryland Army vet turned himself in the next day, he told police in a chilling taped confession that he had traveled from the South to New York to kill blacks.
He said he felt no remorse, and that Caughman was just practice for “something much bigger.”
“I think we should just preserve the best people and get rid of all the dead weight,” he said in the disturbing video played at a pretrial hearing. “In my opinion, blacks are inferior people.”
Jackson, who is due back in court Jan. 21, faces murder, hate-crime, terrorism and weapons charges.