The girlfriend of the former inmate killed in an attack on Manhattan bottle worker Jose Alba has not been charged with stabbing the employee during the melee because prosecutors believe she was simply protecting her friend, police sources told The Post. on Monday.
The decision stunned Alba’s supporters, not to mention the worker himself — who faces a controversial murder rap for the boyfriend’s death, even though he and crowds of supporters say the video shows he apparently acted in self-defense, a bodega representative said .
“I do not understand why [district attorney] didn’t charge her,” Francisco Marte of the Bodega and Small Business Association Group said outside Alba’s Hamilton Heights apartment after visiting the worker Monday.
He said the 61-year-old clerk and his supporters believed the 32-year-old girlfriend should be jailed for stabbing Alba three times as he fended off her angry boyfriend.
“She was involved in it,” Marte said of the incident. “She should be in jail and the $250,000 bond [Alba once faced] it should be on her, not on him. He was just defending himself.”
But police sources said prosecutors declined to press charges against the woman because they believed she was justified in helping her friend while he was being cut.
Prosecutors have not filed charges against the girlfriend of the former inmate killed by convenience store worker Jose Alba, even though she stabbed Alba three times.
“The DA’s office looked at the tape and they felt she was protecting her friend,” a cop familiar with the situation told The Post. “They didn’t think the fees were necessary.”
But defense attorney and former Bronx prosecutor Michael DiScioaro said he’s in Alba’s camp on that one.
“I have no idea why she hasn’t been charged,” Discioaro said. “Her boyfriend was the aggressor. She fails to defend the aggressor.
Sources say DA Alvin Bragg’s office did not file charges against the woman because they believe she had the right to defend her boyfriend. Gabriela Bass
“We’re getting a good look at how the system works for the average person,” he said. “Imagine if there was no video. Jose Alba would never be released from Rikers and [Simon’s girlfriend] will testify against him, possibly perjury.
Alba was working behind the counter at the store on July 1 when the woman became enraged after her debit card was repeatedly declined while trying to buy her 10-year-old daughter a bag of chips.
The woman claims Alba was rude during the botched purchase and ran home to pick up her 35-year-old boyfriend, Austin Simon.
Alba stabbed Austin Simon to death after Simon went behind the counter and attacked Alba. Alec Tabak
Simon, a career criminal serving time in state prison for assaulting a police officer, stormed behind the counter and pushed Alba into the wall — then blocked his exit, video shows.
Cornered, Alba reached for a knife and stabbed Simon five times, fatally wounding him — while also apparently being stabbed by the woman himself, wild security video shows.
Cops charged Alba with second-degree murder and weapons possession, and he was being held on $250,000 bail until Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office negotiated a $5,000 bond that allowed him to post bail and go home under strict monitoring.
Former Bronx DA Michael S. DiScioaro said he thinks the woman should be charged.
The woman later claimed to cops that she never stabbed Alba, even though surveillance footage indicated otherwise, sources said. She could not be reached for comment.
Manhattan prosecutors declined to comment Monday, saying the office does not discuss details of pending criminal cases.
Earlier Monday, Alba spoke for the first time since the deadly incident.
“I’m very sad. I didn’t think this would happen,” he said in Spanish. “At the moment I was in shock. I didn’t know what to do and what to say.
Asked if he had a message for Simon’s family, he said he was sorry.
“I would tell them I don’t want to do this,” he said. “Please forgive me because I didn’t mean to do it.
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Rosner
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