The homeless man accused of brutally stabbing a straphanger to death on a Manhattan subway train Saturday morning “casually and callously” smoked K2 after allegedly plunging a knife into the man’s heart, prosecutors said.
Claude White, 33, was arraigned on second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon charges in Manhattan criminal court Tuesday for the killing of 32-year-old Tavon Silver.
White allegedly got into an argument with Silver over a drug deal gone wrong aboard a southbound 4 train at around 4 a.m., Assistant District Attorney Victoria Meyer said at his arraignment hearing.
He reportedly gave Silver K2 in exchange for crack cocaine, but Silver smoked it without delivering on his end of the bargain, according to the prosecutor.
White grew enraged and the pair argued to the point it turned violent.
White allegedly straddled Silver with his knees on his shoulders — totally immobilizing him, Meyer said.
“The defendant had every opportunity in the world to choose not to kill this man but in the defendant’s own words to the detectives, he felt that there must be ‘consequences,’” Meyer told the court.
“So the defendant reached for a knife and he plunged it into Mr. Silver’s body while his 300-plus-pound body sat on top of Mr. Silver,” she added. “He stabbed Mr. Silver twice in the chest, exposing his stomach and then ultimately puncturing his heart.”
After the bloodbath, White allegedly rummaged through his victim’s belongings and took back the K2 he had given him.
He then got off the train at 14th Street/Union Square, tossed the knife he had just used into the train tunnel and threw away his sweatshirt that was drenched in the victim’s blood, according to Meyer.
Once on the subway platform, White “casually and callously” walked over to a person waiting for a train and asked for a light to smoke the K2 while Silver lay dying, the prosecutor said.
Silver, who survived a separate hate-fueled stabbing last year in the Bronx, cried out to a conductor that he had been stabbed before passing out.
He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Judge Paul McDonnell remanded White without bail, stating that he “poses an extreme flight risk.”
White — whose address is listed as the “Bellevue men’s center” — was also arraigned for a bank robbery he allegedly committed at a Manhattan Bank of America on June 6 after he failed to show up for his original court date.
He is accused of handing a teller a note demanding one-hundred and twenty dollar bills and threatening to shoot if not. White then allegedly stole money from a man who had just withdrawn money while threatening to shoot him.
White identified himself as the suspect in surveillance footage from the bank heist and “completely confessed” to the crime but said he lied about being armed, the prosecutor said.
The alleged murderer has a lengthy and violent rap sheet including attacks against other homeless men.
In 2011, he pled guilty to assault of whacking a man who was begging for money with a thick metal chain to the head.
Two years later, he robbed and stabbed a wheelchair-bound homeless man in a particularly heinous attack. White slashed the victim in the hand so deep that muscle was protruding from his wound, Meyer said.
White pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six years in prison for that attack.
The suspect’s parole officer testified at the hearing and said he was “not suitable for community supervision” due to his history of skipping rehab programs and called him a flight risk.
White could face up to 25 years to life in prison if he’s convicted of the murder charge.
