By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — Hours after he stabbed a passenger to death on a D-train subway, a Bronx exterminator described his gruesome crime in detail to police, according to court documents released on Wednesday.
"I first cut the man on his hand and then I stepped back and slashed him," Gerardo Sanchez told police in a chilling confession within hours of allegedly murdering straphanger Dwight Johnson on a crowded subway car on Nov. 21.
"I saw the blood coming from the man's mouth and that scared me," he said, according to excerpts of the confession filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Despite the record of the interview, Sanchez — a 37-year-old exterminator from the Bronx — pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder as a hate crime at an arraignment hearing Wednesday.
Court documents reveal a typical weekend subway journey suddenly turning deadly. The madness began shortly after midnight on Nov. 21, when Sanchez left an extermination job at Cafe Cafe, in SoHo. He wanted to take the D-train at W. 4th Street station, but weekend service interruptions re-routed him to the F-train, he told police.
He transferred to the northbound D-train at the Bryant Park subway stop, and that's when he first encountered the victim.
"I got on the train at the stop before and asked the guy if I could sit because he had a bag on the seat next to him," Sanchez told police.
"He told me to go sit someplace else. I looked around and there were no other seats, so I told him, I didn't want to sit anywhere else. Can I sit here?" he continued.
Sanchez claimed Johnson — who he described as Jamaican — flew into a rage and "got in my face."
Sanchez escalated the face-off by telling Johnson "to go f--- himself," prompting Johnson to punch him in the mouth, Sanchez claimed.
By the time the train rolled into the subway stop under Rockefeller Center, Sanchez had fatally stabbed Johnson with a kitchen knife as stunned passengers looked on helplessly.
"I reached into my jacket pocket and retrieved a blade that I took from Cafe Cafe and stabbed at the man," Sanchez told police.
Sanchez claimed he was only defending himself, adding that Johnson had him by the throat and pursued him even after he was stabbed.
"I went to the other side of the car and the man followed me and grabbed my arm. I told the man to leave me alone," he told police.
Johnson admitted he tried to ditch the murder weapon by prying open the sealed subway doors and tossing it out on to the tracks.
In interviews after the arrest, Sanchez told police he was not medicated and wanted permission to call his son.
While on line at central booking, he also expressed concerns about his belongings.
"When I get out in 25 years, do I have to go to the precinct or do I have to pick up my phone at [police headquarters]?" he asked.
Sanchez faces a possible life sentence in prison if convicted. His case was adjourned until Feb. 3.
