Accused Machete Attacker Unfit For Trial: Federal Prosecutors

ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY — Grafton Thomas, the Orange County resident accused of a bloody machete attack on people celebrating Hanukkah in a Monsey rabbi's basement in 2019, is unfit to stand trial, prosecutors have conceded.

Prosecutors told the federal court for the Southern District of New York that eight months of treatment had been unsuccessful, the Daily News reported. The paper quoted Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsey Keenan's letter to the court acknowledging that it isn't probable Thomas will "attain the capacity" to stand trial on the federal attempted murder and hate-crime charges against him.

It's a reversal from their position three months ago. At a hearing in January, prosecutors had said Thomas could be competent to go through a trial while his lawyer, Michael Sussman, repeated his contention that Thomas should be committed indefinitely in the care of the Bureau of Prisons.

The Rockland attack took place as 100 people were celebrating the seventh night of Hanukkah when a man stormed in, stabbed four people, and fled. A fifth person was injured in the melee. Thomas, the alleged attacker, was tracked down quickly in New York City by police. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment and was sent to Rockland County Jail.

Within a month, Sussman had filed a motion in federal court requesting a full competency hearing for his client. Thomas had a record of mental health issues and neglect by the medical system, he said. Sussman said his visit to Thomas's former home in Wurstboro uncovered many signs of deep mental illness including bottles full of prescription psychotropic drugs that he had not taken. SEE: Family: Hanukkah Stabbing Suspect Had Mental Illness History.

Three months after the attack, one of the victims, Josef Neumann, 70, who had been hospitalized in a coma, died. Sussman requested an autopsy but Rockland County did not perform one.

Thomas is now at a federal medical facility and prison in Missouri. Sussman and prosecutors agree he is too dangerous to be released, the Daily News reported.

Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Walsh said the federal prosecutors' letter did not change anything for his office.

"Until a federal judge makes a ruling on the competency of Grafton Thomas, on his mental fitness to stand trial on his federal charges, the Rockland County District Attorney can not comment on the future of our state prosecution. The next scheduled state court proceeding, pertaining to Grafton Thomas on all pending state charges, is May 10, 2021 before the Honorable Kevin Russo, J.C.C."

An attempt by Walsh in 2020 to have Sussman removed as Thomas's lawyer was unsuccessful. SEE: Rockland DA Tries To Remove Lawyer For Hanukkah Attack Defendant.

Rockland County Executive Ed Day said a criminal trial would bring closure and it would be regrettable if Neumann's friends and family did not have that chance. If not in prison, Grafton Thomas should spend the rest of his life in a mental institution as he is far too dangerous to ever be set free, he said.

"I once again stand with our Jewish community in condemning this terrible hate crime and is it my sincere hope that peaceful thought and prayer brings some comfort to those impacted by this attack," Day said.