By Michael Ventura
DNAinfo Senior Editor
MANHATTAN — A man was charged on Friday with murdering two men in the fatal subway stabbing on the 2 train last weekend.
Two of his friends, who had also initially been arrested, were released because there was not enough evidence to connect them to the crime, a law enforcement source told DNAinfo.
Brenddy Garcia, 19, of Brooklyn, was arraigned Friday for killing Darnell Morel and Ricardo Williams, both 24 of Brooklyn, a law enforcement source told DNAinfo.
Garcia's lawyer claimed at his arraignment that he was acting in self defense after someone struck him in the head with a bottle.
Garcia, who news sources have said is believed to have wielded the knife, has also been charged with criminal possession of a weapon, according to police.
"He's the one who did the cutting," a police source told the Daily News.
A third man, Mark Joseph, sustained neck and arm injuries, but survived.
The three suspects were grilled at the 6th Precinct station house, steps from the Christopher Street subway station where they were believed to have fled the train after the Sunday morning stabbing.
Garcia's friends Franklin Varella, 21, of Inwood, and Diogenes Hernandez, 21, of Queens, were released Friday.
The investigation had been slowed by a lack of surveillance cameras and station agents at the subway station.
Sources told the New York Post that the men said they were attacked by a drunken group of friends on the train.
As soon as the crew, which included Morel and Williams, boarded the train after a night of partying at the Cellar Bar in the Bryant Park Hotel, they began harassing passengers, the Post reported. Witnesses told police that the victims' group then started throwing trash at the three suspects, the paper said.
Garcia, who had no criminal record, told police he pulled the knife after being hit in the head with a beer bottle, a source told the Post.
"I'm glad [they're] caught and can't do it again," Micaela Rodriguez, Williams' fiancée, told the News. "It's a little relief that there's going to be justice."
