Judge orders psych evaluation for Times Square subway shove suspect
The deranged ex-con accused of pushing straphanger Michelle Go to her death at a Times Square subway station begged a judge to send him to a mental hospital as he was arraigned on murder charges Wednesday.
Martial Simon, 61, mumbled incoherently during the virtual hearing from Bellevue Hospital, including telling the judge, “I gotta go to court.”
Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Paul McDonnell said he took Simon’s ramblings as a request to be sent “to a psychiatric facility” — but instead ordered a psychiatric evaluation.
Simon is accused of walking up behind Go on the platform at the Times Square subway station and pushing her into the path of an oncoming R train around 9:40 a.m. Saturday.
He has been held at Bellevue Hospital since.
Prosecutors said Go was looking down at her phone when she was attacked.
“Defendant admitted his guilt in three separate conversations with transit officers, detectives, and ADAs,” prosecutor Hunter Carrell said in court. “In addition, video places the defendant on the scene, and an eyewitness identified the defendant in a double-blind photo array.”
Simon’s lawyer, Mitchel Shuman, said he would await the results of the psych exam.
Simon’s sister, Josette Simon, told The Post earlier this week that her brother was a hardworking Haitian immigrant until his life was derailed by mental illness while he was in his 30s.
She said he has been in and out of mental hospitals for more than 20 years, and said she once begged a hospital not to release him due to his potential for violent behavior.
Prosecutors said Wednesday that at the time of Go’s alleged fatal shove, Simon was being sought on a warrant for violating his parole, which ended in August, in a 2019 attempted robbery case.
Simon, who served two separate stints in state prison for attempted robbery, twice failed to show up for meetings with his parole officer in July, the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said in a statement on Wednesday.
The warrant for his arrest was issued on Aug. 3, the department said.
Go, 40, was a California native and UCLA graduate who had been working at Deloitte Consulting in Manhattan since 2018.
Her family asked for privacy but issued a statement that they are still “in a state of shock” over Go’s senseless death.
Go’s death has also rekindled ongoing concerns over violence in the Big Apple transit system and prompted a massive vigil in Times Square Tuesday to remember her and to denounce anti-Asian violence in the city.
Mayor Eric Adams, among the officials who spoke at Tuesday’s Times Square vigil, sparked criticism Monday when he claimed that the subways were safe, and said the real issue is the “perception” that they are not.
But on Tuesday, the mayor conceded that he too does not feel safe on the subway.
NYPD statistics show that transit crime has spiked by more than 65 percent during the first two weeks of the year since Adams has been in office.
Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts
