Man who followed woman into her New York apartment and stabbed her to death pleads guilty to murder

NEW YORK — A man pleaded guilty to murder Tuesday for stabbing a woman to death after following her from the street to her apartment building in lower Manhattan.

Assamad Nash, 27, also pleaded guilty to burglary as a sexually motivated crime in the Feb. 13, 2022, attack on 35-year-old Christina Yuna Lee.

“Today, Assamad Nash was held accountable for senselessly killing Christina Yuna Lee after following her into her own home,” Prosecutor Bragg said in a statement. Bragg said his thoughts “are with his family and our community as they continue to heal from this tragedy.”

Prosecutors said Lee was walking home when Nash followed her to her apartment building in Manhattan's Chinatown and walked up six flights of stairs to her apartment. As Lee entered the apartment, Nash forced his way inside and attempted to sexually assault him, prosecutors said.

Police were alerted by 911 calls and had to break down the apartment door to gain entry. They found Nash hiding under a mattress and Lee dead in the bathroom with at least 40 stab wounds.

Leaders of New York's Asian-American community feared that the killing of Lee, who was Korean-American, was part of a wave of anti-Asian violence during the coronavirus pandemic, but Nash ultimately was not charged with hate crime.

Nash is expected to be sentenced to 30 years to life in prison when he is sentenced July 30.

The Associated Press