By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN CRIMINAL COURT — A pot-smoking, mentally ill man who allegedly stabbed his 9-year-old cousin to death after playing late night video games with the child has been indicted, prosecutors said Friday.
Alejandro Morales, 25, allegedly stabbed Anthony Maldonado at least ten times in the chest in Morales' mother's Morningside Heights apartment before trying to flee on Jan. 2nd, prosecutors said.
The victim was a fourth grader in New Jersey who had been visiting with relatives at the city-owned Grant Houses at 75 La Salle Street. He was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly following the attack, prosecutors said.
Family members said Morales is schizophrenic and has been receiving psychiatric treatment for years.
His lawyer blamed a mix of prescription drugs and marijuana for the violent fit of rage, saying it threw Morales further off balance.
In 2004, Morales went berserk in a subway train, smashing another passenger in the eye with a bottle, the New York Times reported.
He served five years in prison before being released in May, prosecutors said. He was supposed to be staying in a halfway house, but refused and moved in with his mother, the woman told the Times.
The NYPD VIPER unit, Housing Division, helped police catch Morales within minutes of the crime by tracking him on the internal security cameras, police said. They noticed Morales because he left his apartment without shoes and alerted units waiting downstairs, they said.
Morales allegedly confessed the brutal killing to police when he was picked up, police said.
His case was adjourned to Feb. 5 when the court is expected to unseal his indictment.
