Cops nab murder suspect sought in botched subway station robbery
All it took was a “perceived slight” in the subway to spark the death of an innocent Manhattan woman, prosecutors said Saturday.
David Robinson, 53, was charged with manslaughter and held on $100,000 bail Saturday in the July 21 death of Than Htwe, 58.
The apparently hothead Robinson allegedly targeted Htwe and her son as they left the Canal Street subway station because he believed the younger man had thrown trash at him, prosecutor Lindley Round told Judge Paul Goetz.
In response, he allegedly tried to grab the 22-year-old as he and the older woman climbed the steps, knocking the young man off balance and causing him to grab onto his mom, authorities contend.
The incident sent mother and son tumbling backward down the stairs, where Htwe hit her head.
Robinson told investigators he heard a “loud crack” when the woman’s head hit the ground yet “he got on the next train and went to Midtown,” Round said in court.Despite efforts to avoid authorities, Robinson left a trail when he went into a Manhattan DVD store and picked up items off the shelves, and that’s how cops got his fingerprints, the prosecutor said.
The suspect admitted to investigators he avoided the crime scene for months afterward, and fled to Newark, NJ, after Htwe died, Round said.
He gave cops a fake name when he was finally busted Friday in Central Park, following a Crime Stoppers tip, according to police. Robinson, head bowed and hands cuffed behind his back, said nothing during the proceeding.
Defense attorney Nicole Guliano said her client could not afford bail and argued for supervised release.
Goetz set bail, noting the “significant jail time the defendant is facing.”
The MTA called Htwe’s death a “terrible crime” in a Saturday statement on Robinson’s arrest.
“Our hearts continue to go out to the victim’s family. Once again it is clear that with cameras in every subway station anyone who preys on transit riders can expect to be identified and face justice.”
Additional reporting by Khristina Narizhnaya and Kieran Ungemach
