An upstate judge has ruled that a deranged vagrant charged in a brutal 2019 machete attack on Hasidic Jews at a Hanukkah party is still unfit for trial — but determined prosecutors vow they’ll still throw the book at him whenever he’s cleared to face a jury.
Rockland County Judge Kevin Russo last week signed an order committing Grafton Thomas, who is charged with murder in the Dec. 28, 2019 attack in Ramapo, to be held at a psychiatric hospital for at least two more years as “an incapacitated person.”
The attack left 72-year-old Josef Neumann in a coma with severe head injuries that led to his death three months later.
Thomas, 39, is facing a 14-count indictment which includes six counts of assault and attempted murder in the attack.
“The Rockland District Attorney’s Office is committed to getting justice on behalf of Josef Neumann and the others injured during this horrific attack,” Scott Waters, a spokesman for Rockland DA Thomas Walsh said in a statement Monday. “When the defendant is ruled competent, the office will proceed with prosecution.”
According to Russo’s order, Thomas will continue to be held at the Mid-Hudson Psychiatric Center in New Hampton for at least two more years before the matter is reviewed.
Russo also signed a commitment order for Thomas in January 2022 after he was found incompetent.
Police said there were people between the ages 2 months to 80 years old in the Rockland County home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg when Thomas stormed in during their Hanukkah celebration and stabbed five Jewish men in the house.
One man at the party, Josef Gluck, was able to fend off the attack with a marble-top table.
Before the attack, Thomas had more 20 encounters with police in Greenwood Lake, where he lived with his mother about 22 miles northwest of Monsey, according to police records.
He was arrested twice by Greenwood Lake Police, once in 2002 for allegedly smoking marijuana, and again in 2009 for allegedly assaulting a man.