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Alleged Subway Pusher Said It Was 'Cool' to Kill Victim: Prosecutors

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | February 27, 2013 7:47pm

QUEENS — The woman accused of pushing a man to his death in front of an oncoming subway train in Sunnyside late last year told police she "thought it would be cool" to kill him, prosecutors said during a hearing Wednesday.

Erika Menendez, 31, is charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime after she allegedly confessed to shoving Sunando Sen, 46, onto the tracks at the 40th Street 7 train station in Queens on Dec. 27, because she believed he was Muslim.

During Wednesday’s hearing in Queens Criminal Court, Assistant District Attorney Peter Lomp read several statements that Menendez allegedly made while she was being held at the 112th Precinct in Forest Hills.

“I just pushed him in front of the train because I thought it would be cool. I did it because he was Muslim, I’m prejudiced,” she allegedly said. “Since the Twin Towers, I have been beating up these Muslims, Hindus, all of them.”

When asked by the detectives how she felt about the incident, Menendez said, "I don't give a f---, I don't live to regret anything, it is what it is," according to prosecutors.

She also told detectives that after she left the train station, she went to Brooklyn to visit "my man," according to prosecutors. He allegedly told her that he saw her on TV and that “they got a $12,000 reward on me.” She also told detectives that, "Then we smoked some weed and did each other, then I went to eat at Wendy's and after that I got stopped by cops."

When detectives asked her what she wanted to eat for lunch she said, “How about Halal lamb over rice with white sauce, a dash of white sauce," according to prosecutors.

Menendez was found mentally fit for trial in January, but her attorney asked that she be examined by another doctor, saying, "she has a long mental history."

The second examination yielded the same results, finding Menendez fit for trial, the Queens District Attorney's office said Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, Menendez told Judge Gregory Lasak that she no longer wanted to be represented by Thomas Kenniff, the defense attorney retained by her family. Instead, she said, she wanted Joseph DeFelice, her original court-appointed attorney, to represent her.

Her next court hearing is on April 18.