MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — The homeless sex offender accused of raping a woman twice in the Hudson River Greenway told police he didn’t know why he was being arrested soon after the attack, in part because he drank several cans of Four Loko — a caffeinated alcoholic drink that was banned from sale in New York.
“Did I do something wrong because I don’t remember because I had Four Lokos,” Jonathan Stewart, 25, told officers, according to court documents that include some incohorent rants after his arrest. “I don’t know what’s going on. I just woke up.”
Prosecutors say Stewart attacked his 21-year-old victim after striking up a conversation with her on a park bench around 5 a.m. on Sept. 22 in the TriBeCa park.
Stewart, a convicted felon and registered sex offender, put a choke hold on the woman and dragged her to a nearby area before raping her, authorities said.
The young woman was then able to break free, but Stewart chased down his victim, punched and strangled her, then raped her again, prosecutors said.
The woman managed to flee again, and, running from her attacker, flagged down Hudson River Park officers.
Stewart sat quietly in his gray prison jumpsuit during his court appearance Tuesday, only uttering “not guilty” when asked how he pled to the host of felonies in his indictment — predatory sexual assault, first degree rape, sexual assault, criminal sexual act and sexual abuse.
According to court papers, Stewart told cops he was at a party the night before the incident, then went to his cousin's apartment and drank four or five cans of Four Lokos along with Grey Goose vodka, smoked marijuana and a synthetic marijuana known as K2.
He said he left and proceeded to walk through Union Square Park but couldn’t remember anything after that, court papers say.
Stewart also told cops he was homeless, schizophrenic and wanted to kill himself that night by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge. But added, "If I'm lying, I need a lawyer. I'm not talking to none of ya."
Officers captured Stewart soon after the assault on the median of the West Side Highway at North Moore Street, a block away from where police said the attack occurred.
He was taken to Bellevue after threatening to kill himself, where he was arraigned via video feed last month.
A few days after the attack, he also told a parole office in another incoherent description — as though explaining the assault that found him in jail this time — that he had sexually abused his cousin, making her take her clothes off and touching her breasts, but that he "didn't have intercourse with her."
"I think they're going to make it a violation because the doctor said the DNA came back negative," he told the officer. "I have a defense lawyer and I was arraigned at Bellevue."
Prosecutors said Stewart is a "violent predicate felon" who was convicted of first degree robbery and first degree sexual abuse in 2004. He was also a registered Level III sex offender — the highest-risk category — as a result of his 2004 conviction.
He was released in July following a stint in jail in 2011 for a parole violation.
At Tuesday's hearing, prosecutors offered Stewart a 40-year prison sentence if he agreed to plea guilty.
Stewart could face 25 years to life if charged with the top count in his indictment, predatory sexual assualt.
His lawyer said they weren't prepared to take the deal.
Stewart is being held without bail on RIkers Island.
