The case of a homeless woman accused of hitting a cellist in the head on the New York subway was postponed until September on Wednesday.
Amira Hunter, 23, walked out of jail today and smiled non-stop throughout her court hearing in Manhattan. She appeared in an orange jumpsuit and a pair of glove-like restraints on her already-cuffed hands.
She was expected to change her official plea from “not guilty” to “guilty” in connection with the charges she faces for allegedly beating Iain Forrest, 29, at the Herald Square station on 34th Street several months ago.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office offered him a lower sentence in exchange for a guilty plea, but that did not happen.
Hunter’s public defender, Molly Kamus, instead submitted a new document, roughly 1,000 pages long, that prosecutors said they had not yet reviewed.
To give prosecutors the time they need to review the document, Hunter’s case has been delayed for two months and his next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 18.
Amira Hunter is pictured entering the courtroom on Wednesday with a smile on her face. Her smile persisted throughout the 25-minute hearing.
Hunter’s defense attorney requested that she be released with an ankle monitoring device so she could live with her mother. Judge Gregory Carro denied this request and sent her back to prison.
The content of the document was not disclosed.
The defense also requested that Hunter, who is currently in jail awaiting her next court date, undergo an exam to be fitted with an ankle monitor so she can be released into the custody of her mother.
Hunter’s mother reportedly wanted to attend Wednesday’s procedure but was unable to be there due to work.
Judge Gregory Carro rejected the defense’s request and sent Hunter back to prison.
Hunter’s behavior during the 25-minute hearing was odd, but not atypical for her.
As at his court appearance in April, Hunter was seen smiling for reporters in the courtroom.
After the judge asked her how old she was, she happily declared that her birthday was in six months and that she was a Sagittarius.
DailyMail.com has contacted Hunter’s defence lawyer.
After the judge asked him how old he was, Hunter took the opportunity to happily declare that his birthday was in six months and that he was a Sagittarius.
Hunter faces one assault charge and one weapons charge. At this point, he has technically pleaded not guilty, but is expected to reverse his stance and plead guilty if all goes as planned at his next hearing in September.
Hunter is pictured in April at her arraignment, where she mistakenly said she was guilty when asked to enter a plea.
Hunter’s most recent run-in with the law began on Feb. 13, when he allegedly hit Iain Forrest in the head with a water bottle while he was playing his electric cello at the Herald Square station on 34th Street.
The brazen attack was caught on video and showed a bundled-up woman, believed to be Hunter, walking towards Forrest.
She is seen picking up a metal water bottle he had left on the floor earlier and smashing him with it while Sia’s Titanium was playing.
The bottle fell to the ground with a crash as he clutched his head in pain and the musician feared for his life.
Hunter was arrested on February 28 and appeared in court the next day, where Manhattan Deputy District Attorney Alexandra Roberston asked the judge to set bail at $50,000 because the defendant was charged with a violent crime.
“The cellist was playing before the defendant came up behind him and struck him on the back of the head without provocation,” Roberston told the court.
Hunter’s defense attorney at the time, Joseph Conza, recommended supervised release, as did Kamus today.
And instead of denying it as Judge Carro did today, Judge Marva Brown ordered her released under supervision and sent to a shelter.
Iain Forrest, 29, said he stopped performing on Tube platforms after being attacked twice in a year.
The medical student and artist was attacked on the night of Feb. 13 at the Herald Square station on 34th Street. Forrest said the suspect fled the station and escaped into a nearby Macy’s, evading NYPD officers.
Forrest was playing the electric cello in a Manhattan subway station when he was hit in the head with a metal water bottle.
Judge Brown cited the lack of significant criminal history in her rejection of prosecutors’ demands for a $50,000 bond on the felony charge.
Prior to the attack on Forrest, Hunter had seven prior arrests and active warrants for failing to appear in court.
Just days after her release, Hunter was arrested on suspicion of stealing a $235 Moncler baseball cap from a Nordstrom store in Midtown.
Forrest, a member of the MTA’s Music Under New York program, has stopped performing on the subway since he was brutalized.
“It kind of breaks my heart to think that this is something that has to stop indefinitely unless there’s some kind of systemic change that protects performances on the subway,” she said in an Instagram post.
And it wasn’t even the first time he was attacked on the subway.
A man beat him, strangled him and smashed the battery on his electric cello before fleeing with his money and the instrument last May.
“This has been happening too much and it’s almost been normalized as an acceptable ‘risk’ for this profession,” Forrest said. “I think it’s something that needs to be paid attention to and better tracked in terms of the numbers and where these things are happening.”
“I have a wife, family and friends who care about me and I don’t know what they would do if I wasn’t there.”
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