NYC judge drops murder charge against bodega worker Jose Alba after Manhattan DA backtracks

It was a case that spurred widespread outrage. Bodega worker Jose Alba, who fatally stabbed a man who assaulted him during a dispute inside the Hamilton Heights store was arrested and charged with second-degree murder after the incident earlier this month.

Austin Simon, 35, went into the store to confront Alba, 61 after his girlfriend was denied a bag of chips for her daughter after her credit card was declined at the Bluemoon Convenient Store.

Alba allegedly had snatched the chips back from the girl. The woman told Simon, who then went to the store, walked behind the counter, and pushed Alba.

Simon’s girlfriend then allegedly pulled a knife from her purse and stabbed Alba in the arm.

Minutes later, Simon came to the store, entered the small, employees-only area behind the counter, shoved Alba against a wall of shelving, and grabbed him by the collar to lift him out of a chair and force him out of the employees-only area, prosecutors said. He said he wanted Alba to apologize to the girl and to come outside to fight him.

“I don’t want a problem, papa,” Alba is heard on an audio recording telling Simon.

With Simon holding him by the collar and forcibly pushing him out, Alba grabbed a knife from a shelf beside the counter and repeatedly stabbed Simon as they struggled, prosecutors said.
Simon died at a nearby hospital a short time later.

After surveillance video was released that showed Simon first coming behind the cashier’s desk and attacking Alba, several protests were organized and calls for the charge to be dropped began citing self-defense.

On Tuesday, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has filed a motion to dismiss the murder charge against Alba.

New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) said, “We had an innocent, hard-working New Yorker who was doing his job and someone was extremely aggressive toward him, and I believe that after the DA’s view, the DA in my opinion made the right decision.”

Alba could have faced up to 25 years in prison if he had been convicted on the murder charge.