BRONX CRIMINAL COURT — Bahsid McLean, the 23-year-old Bronx man accused of stabbing and sawing his mother into pieces, has been indicted by a grand jury and charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and unlawful dissection of a human body, prosecutors said Wednesday.
He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted, according to Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson.
On the night of February 24, McLean stabbed his mother, Tanya Byrd, 45, in the neck, prosecutors say.
Later, he allegedly carved apart her body with an electric power saw and dumped the pieces on the streets around their Melrose apartment.
William Harris, 26, who relatives said met McLean in jail, allegedly helped his friend dissect the woman, bag her remains and haul them away in a shopping cart.
The grand jury charged Harris with hindering prosecution.
McLean is currently at Bellevue Hospital and is “very calm, very medicated,” his lawyer said after court proceedings Wednesday where the defendants did not appear.
“He’s on extensive medication,” said the attorney, Lynn Calvacca, adding that she had hired a forensic psychologist to evaluate whether McLean is fit for trial.
She said her client planned to plead not guilty and would not testify in court.
Harris’ lawyer declined to comment Wednesday.
Lawyers for McLean and Harris have said that both men have histories of mental illness.
At his arraignment last month, McLean wore a black trash bag over a white paper jump suit and had to be quieted down as he called out, “I didn't do anything wrong.”
Byrd was a home health aide who also raised a 6-year-old son with Down syndrome, according to relatives.
McLean was jealous of the attention the younger boy received and resentful of his mother, according to Cassandra McLean, 49, Byrd’s sister.
“This was a premeditated murder,” Cassandra McLean said in an interview last month. “A year ago, he was looking up how to commit a murder without getting caught."
She said that McLean should stand trial and pay for the gruesome crime.
“We want him to feel the shame the way we feel the pain,” she said. “I do not want Bashid to get away with an insanity plea. I want Bashid to have life in prison or death.”
McLean and Harris are due back in court on March 22.
With reporting by Trevor Kapp.
