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Tourist Slain In a Subway In Manhattan
By Jack Curry
- Sept. 4, 1990
The victim, Brian Watkins of Provo, stepped in when a group of young men slashed his father's pants pocket and buttocks and hit his mother in the station at 53d Street and Seventh Avenue. The family was going to dinner at the Tavern on the Green in Central Park.
Mr. Watkins was stabbed once in the chest and died while on the way to St. Vincent's Hospital, the police said.
Knife and Box Cutter Recovered
''He had a knife in his chest,'' Nick Rosanovich, a witness to the attack, told WCBS-TV. ''He looked like he was gone.''
A police spokesman, Capt. Stephen Davis, said a folding knife with a four-inch blade believed to have been used in the fatal attack and a box cutter used to cut the father's pants were recovered from the suspects at Roseland.
Mr. Watkins was with his parents, brother and sister-in-law at 10:20 P.M. Sunday when they were approached by youths who witnesses said had run into the subway shouting and laughing, the police said. The youths demanded money from the family and a struggle followed, the police said. The young men cut the pants pocket of Brian Watson's father, Sherwin, with a box cutter, slashing his buttocks, and robbed him of a money clip holding $200 as well as some credit cards.
When Mr. Watkins's wife, Karen, stepped forward, she was knocked to the ground and kicked in the head. Brian Watkins was stabbed when he and his brother, Todd, 25, fought the attackers, the police said. The youths fled from the station, and witnesses said Brian Watkins chased them down the platform before collapsing on the stairs, which yesterday were streaked with his blood.
The attackers apparently went to the Roseland Ballroom, at 239 West 52d Street, and Chief DeMartino said they used the stolen money to buy tickets.
Sherwin Watkins needed stitches for a wound on his leg, and his wife was treated for a mouth injury.
''It was his mom that he helped, but it just happened to be her,'' Trevor Rothfels, a tennis pro who tutored Mr. Watkins in the sport, said in a telephone interview from Provo. ''He would have laid down his life to help anyone. It didn't have to be someone he knew.''
Mr. Watkins was the 18th person slain in the subway system this year, the transit police said. They said 20 people were killed in the subways in all of 1989.
Possible Suspects
The police started rounding up possible suspects shortly after the attack, Captain Davis said, and two of them were arrested around midnight outside the Roseland Ballroom. Three were arrested about 4 A.M. when they left Roseland. Two others, including Yull Garry Morales, 19, the man the police believe wielded the knife used to kill Mr. Watkins, were apprehended yesterday afternoon, and the eighth suspect was arrested at 11 P.M.
Asked how the police traced suspects to Roseland, Captain Davis said: ''Most transit police know that most of the kids who get off at 53d Street are going to Roseland. It was a logical place to check.''
There was an unrelated shooting in the ballroom at 3:40 A.M. yesterday, five hours after the stabbing.
Family at Station House
The Watkins family arrived at the precinct station house on West 42d Street at 2:35 P.M. yesterday to view lineups. The parents appeared stunned at the sight of television cameras and photographers. The family members stepped from unmarked police vehicles and then ran quickly into the station house, holding hands.
After viewing a series of lineups, the family left the station house around 8 P.M. They looked distraught as detectives shuttled them into two cars. The family did not speak to reporters as they left and the operator at the New York Hilton said they were not accepting telephone calls.
Shortly after 10:30 P.M., the police announced that seven young men had been charged in the attack and slaying. The eighth arrest was announced about an hour later.
Mr. Morales, who the police believe inflicted the fatal wound, lives at 41-44 Parsons Boulevard in Flushing, Queens. His nickname on the street is Rockstar, the police said.
Other Suspects
The other suspects were identified as Anthony Anderson, 18, of 50-04 31st Avenue in Woodside, Queens; Louis Fernando Montiero, 20, of 142-30 Sanford Avenue, Flushing, Queens; Pascal Carpenter, 18, of 23 Yankee Street, Brentwood, L.I.; Ricardo Nova, 18, for whom the police had no address; Ricardo Lopez, 18, of 85-10 34th Avenue, Jackson Heights, Queens; Emilo Fernandez, 17, of 144-27 35th Avenue, Queens, and Johnnie Hincapie, 18, of 216-12 15th Road, Bayside, Queens.
Throughout the morning and afternoon yesterday, dozens of young men were taken in and out of the station house to take part in lineups. Captain Davis said 54 men were needed to conduct nine lineups.
A High School Tennis Star
Mr. Watkins was a tennis star at Provo High School who attended Idaho State on an athletic scholarship. He placed second in the state in singles during his senior year, rebounding from a serious knee injury. He dropped out of college after two years and worked for the American Business Service, a company that organizes motivational seminars. He also had taught tennis at the Ridge Athletic Club in Provo, where his parents were members.
Debbe Jaspering, the social tennis director at the athletic club, said she attended the U.S. Open with the Watkins family on Saturday and watched Brad Pearce, a professional player from Provo. In a telephone interview from her home in Provo, Mrs. Jaspering said she occasionally played mixed doubles with Brian Watkins and was shocked by his death.
''Here this happened to a whole family with three men and two ladies,'' she said. ''I put myself in Karen's place and feel terrible for her. She adores her sons. I can't imagine what she's going through.''
Mrs. Jaspering said the Watkins family was very close and often vacationed where they could watch and play tennis. She did not hear about the slaying until she returned home yesterday. The trip to New York had been her first since high school.
''I was pretty nervous before going,'' she said. ''A lot of people said, 'Are you excited?' and I said I was nervous. I wondered if I should take out a life insurance policy. That's not a joke.''
Mr. Rothfels, who had hired Mr. Watkins as a tennis instructor, said he was not surprised that his friend had died trying to help someone else.
''It's not very common to have a boy like him who worked harder than he was supposed to and did more than he was asked,'' he said. ''We're going to miss him around here.''
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Case dropped against man jailed 25 years in slaying of tourist from Utah
Courts • Conviction was overturned; prosecutors unsure of new guilty verdict from jury after so much time.
By Jennifer Peltz The Associated Press
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
New York • After spending a quarter-century in prison on a conviction that got overturned, Johnny Hincapie was waiting to hear whether he'd finally be cleared of suspicion in an infamous tourist killing.
He got both a yes and a no Wednesday. Prosecutors said they'd dismiss rather than retry the 1990 case, yet they emphasized they still think Hincapie was involved in a subway mugging that ended with the deadly stabbing of Utah tourist Brian Watkins as he tried to protect his parents.
But even if not declared innocent, Hincapie said he's "overjoyed."
"I can finally, now, put this behind me and not ever have to worry about this, looking back, ever again," the 44-year-old said, his voice breaking, as he left court with his family. He'd been freed since his conviction was tossed in 2015.
To Hincapie, who said he was beaten into a false confession as an 18-year-old Colombian immigrant, the case was a blatant injustice the legal system refused to acknowledge for decades. For prosecutors, it illustrated the difficulties of trying to get a decades-old, once-tossed conviction again.
"While we continue to believe that Hincapie's confessions were both voluntary and truthful" and he participated in the fatal attack, "it is unlikely that a new jury can be convinced of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt," Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eugene Hurley III wrote in a court filing released Wednesday.
Witnesses' memories have faded, an important prosecution witness — Watkins' father — has died, and a new witness came forward to say Hincapie played no role in the attack, Hurley noted. Another witness and a co-defendant also have vouched in recent years that Hincapie wasn't involved.
Hincapie's lawyer, Ron Kuby, said prosecutors should have shown "at least some expression of uncertainty, of doubt, of humility" about the case.
Watkins' mother, Karen, declined to comment on the developments when reached by phone later Wednesday, saying she was only then learning of them.
The Watkinses were in New York from Provo, Utah, to see the U.S. Open tennis tournament. While waiting for a subway train to go to dinner, they were accosted by a group of youths determined to rob people for money to go out dancing, police said. One of the youths yelled, "It's killing time!" as they surged down into the subway station, witnesses said at the time.
Watkins' late father, Sherwin, was slashed and robbed of about $200; Karen Watkins was hit and kicked. As their 22-year-old son tried to defend her, he was stabbed in the chest, police said.
Still, he chased the attackers up two stairways before collapsing under a turnstile.
"Why did they do this to me?" he said, according to his father's testimony at Hincapie's trial. "We're just here to have a good time."
Coming a year after the 1989 rape of a woman known as the Central Park jogger, Watkins' death inked an image of New York as a city where crime was out of control. His death — one of more than 2,200 murders in 1990, compared to 335 last year — helped prompt then-Mayor David Dinkins to propose a program designed to increase police protection.
Hincapie wasn't accused of stabbing Watkins, but prosecutors argued the entire group of robbers bore responsibility for his death. Hincapie had confessed to going along with the holdup plan and grabbing Karen Watkins during the attack, according to court papers.
Hincapie soon disavowed his confession. He says he was a bystander who got mistakenly swept up in the case.
He and six other young men were convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Hincapie lost several rounds of appeals before the 2015 ruling that freed him.
Hincapie finished high school and earned bachelor's and master's degrees behind bars. He's since advocated for others challenging their convictions and has lobbied lawmakers to improve the criminal justice system.
His experience taught him "that compassion brings a lot of people together," he said.
"The same impact that was made on me, I want to make on so many other individuals."
Crime and Courts
Judge tosses conviction in infamous 1990 new york city tourist killing, by jennifer peltz • published october 6, 2015 • updated on october 6, 2015 at 11:38 pm.
A man imprisoned for a quarter-century in a notorious tourist killing was granted a new trial and freed on Tuesday after a judge overturned his conviction in a case that helped crystallize an era of crime and fear in the nation's biggest city.
Johnny Hincapie broke into sobs as he heard the decision to throw out his conviction in a subway-platform mugging that killed Utah tourist Brian Watkins as Watkins defended his parents. Hours later, he walked out of the courthouse and into the arms of crying family members, beaming.
"I feel wonderful. I feel free!" he said, tears coming down his cheeks.
State Supreme Court Justice Eduardo Padro cited new evidence, including new testimony from two witnesses and a co-defendant saying Hincapie wasn't involved in the crime. Padro stopped short of declaring Hincapie innocent, as he and his lawyers had hoped the judge might, but agreed to release him on $1 bail while awaiting a retrial.
"After 25 years of suffering, after 25 years of injustice, after 25 years of sleepless nights, God just revealed his justice," said Hincapie's father, Carlos.
Prosecutors said they were weighing whether to appeal the ruling and were committed to retrying the case, if necessary.
"We regret the fact that retrying the case would subject the family of Mr. Watkins to testifying at another trial, reopening old wounds and forcing them to relive the horror of that night 25 years ago," Manhattan district attorney's office spokeswoman Joan Vollero said in a statement.
A message left for Watkins' mother wasn't immediately returned.
Hincapie said he was a bystander who was wrongfully swept up in the case and then was coerced into a false confession. Prosecutors said his claims aren't credible.
The killing became a symbol of random violence in a city that was reeling from it, after the 1989 rape and beating of a woman known as the Central Park jogger and a spate of bloodshed in the summer of 1990. Watkins' death — one of a record-setting 2,245 in 1990, compared to 333 last year — brought a public plea from his family for better subway safety and helped prompt then-Mayor David Dinkins to propose a program designed to increase police protection.
Watkins, 22, and his parents were in town from Provo, Utah, for the U.S. Open tennis tournament. They were heading to dinner when they were jumped by a group of youths looking to rob people to get money to go to a dance hall, police said. After his father was slashed and robbed of $200 and his mother was punched and kicked, Watkins was stabbed in the chest yet chased the attackers up two stairways before collapsing under a turnstile.
"Why did they do this to me?" he said, according to his father's testimony at the trial of Hincapie and several co-defendants. "We're just here to have a good time."
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Hincapie, a Colombian immigrant whose name is pronounced hihn-CAHP'-ee-ay, was one of seven young men convicted in the case. Another defendant was accused of actually stabbing Watkins, but authorities said the whole group bore responsibility for his death.
Hincapie, now 43, has long maintained he was in a different part of the subway station when the stabbing happened.
"I had nothing to do with this," he wrote in a 1990 letter to his lawyer at the time. "I am innocent."
After unsuccessfully appealing his conviction, Hincapie brought another challenge in 2013. It relied partly on a sworn statement from an exonerated co-defendant saying Hincapie played no part in the attack. A man who was convicted, and a witness who came forward only in the last two years, also said during the hearing that Hincapie wasn't involved.
Meanwhile, Hincapie testified that a detective beat him to get him to sign a confession.
Prosecutors said there was "no credible newly discovered evidence" in the case.
But Padro wrote that the new evidence would "create a probability that had such evidence been received at trial the verdict would have been more favorable to the defendant" — a legal standard for tossing out a conviction.
Hincapie has finished high school and earned bachelor's and master's degrees while serving 25 years to life in prison. He has never despaired of being cleared, said his lawyer, Ron Kuby.
"He always maintained an optimism and a certain hope that this day was going to come for him."
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