Stabber Found Mentally Unfit to Stand Trial

During a court appearance earlier this week, the man arrested in connection with the stabbing of Yehuda Leib Brikman on a Crown Heights street was found unfit to stand trial due to mental illness.

JPupdates

The 26-year-old man arrested for the February stabbing of Yehuda Leib Brikman in Crown Heights, Brooklyn was found unfit to be prosecuted at this time due to mental illness, JP has learned.

Keny Rochelin was arrested on March 10 in connection with the stabbing, which was initially investigated as a possible hate crime. He subsequently had stabbed two other men in March, and investigators arrested him and linked him to the stabbing of Brikman.

Investigators at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office then determined that the stabbing of Brikman wasn’t a hate crime, and Rochelin was hospitalized for psychiatric treatment.

On Monday Rochelin appeared in court and was found unfit to proceed at this time as a result of mental illness.

Rochelin’s top charge is attempted murder in the second degree, prosecutors said.

Rochelin was sent back to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan under tight security, sources said, and he is scheduled to appear again in court on June 13.

10 Comments

  • Ma Rabbi

    So what does this mean?
    Will he be locked up in Bellview forever?

  • Anonymous

    Yeh yeh same old same old they all get off and back on the street to continue there crime career & blame society !

  • Really?

    But he was fit to stab a person and then carefully disappear and evade police for the next 2 weeks

  • cannot trust

    this crazy system…..dont forget legally u cannot force an adult to stay in the hospital….so ye he may just b on the streets soon

    • Involuntary commitment

      if someone is found mentally unfit to stand trial then they can be committed to a psych ward, which is most likely what happened here.

  • OK

    so he must have been in touch with a doctor, a social worker, police, or something previously.
    this will indicate that someone did not follow through to keep a dangerous psycho off the streets. something has to be done here.

  • Crown Heights Resident

    The man who shot USA President Reagan also used the insanity defense.