Serial Stabber Nets Prison Sentence For UES Knifing: DA

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The man accused of stabbing three homeless New Yorkers, including a man sleeping in an Upper East Side playground, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison on Wednesday, officials said.

Trevon Murphy, 42, was charged with murder and attempted murder for the horrifying serial stabbings that started on July 5, 2022, in the West Village's Hudson River Park at about 3 a.m., according to officials.

"Today, Trevon Murphy is facing accountability for brutally murdering one unhoused individual and critically injuring two others," Manhattan District Attorney Bragg said in a statement. "New Yorkers who face the painful and difficult experience of being unhoused shouldn’t have to simultaneously fear for their safety."

Murphy's first victim, a 34-year-old man sleeping on a bench, was stabbed in the lower right abdomen, according to documents. He later died at Bellevue Hospital, but not before telling police he saw a man running away from him, prosecutors said.

Four days later, on July 9, Murphy targeted a 59-year-old man in East Midtown on Madison Avenue and East 49th Street, where he stabbed him in the abdomen after staring at him for 20 minutes, according to prosecutors.

On July 11, Murphy then stabbed a homeless 28-year-old man in Stanley Isaacs Playground on the Upper East Side, prosecutors said.

“Trevon Murphy brutally murdered one unhoused individual and critically injured two others in a series of late-night attacks,” Bragg said. “Those who are unhoused already face extreme hardships and vulnerability, and their safety should not be in jeopardy.”

Murphy was arrested on July 13 and later told police that he stabbed each victim in the lower abdomen on purpose, calling the location the "stabber's choice," prosecutors said.

“While today’s sentence will not bring back an innocent life lost and cannot undo the pain two New Yorkers face, I hope it provides a sense of comfort and closure,” Bragg added.