EAST VILLAGE — The man who beat a 68-year-old retired garment worker to death last week was high on the club drug Molly at the time and doesn't remember the attack, his mother told DNAinfo.com New York.
Jamie Pugh, 20, had been partying with friends last Friday when one of them slipped Molly into his drink, Charlotte Pugh-Douglas, Jamie’s mother, said before his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court Wednesday.
“He wasn’t in his right state of mind,” Pugh-Douglas, 45, said.
Shortly thereafter, Pugh attacked ex-garment worker Ruan Wen Hui, demanding the victim "gimme something" before hurling him into a wall then stomping and kicking his head on East 6th Street just off of Avenue D about 8:45 p.m. Friday, police said.
Pugh didn’t even know about the assault until one of his friends showed him the chilling surveillance footage over the weekend and said the attacker looked like him.
“When he saw the video, it killed him inside. It hurt him. He was crying all weekend. He knows it’s him. He just didn’t remember,” Pugh-Douglas said.
Hui was taken to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition and died there on Saturday, police said.
“We feel so bad for the family and the man,” Pugh-Douglas said. “I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart, and so is Jamie.”
“He’s a good kid. He doesn’t get into this stuff,” she added. “If his friend hadn’t slipped him those Mollys, this man would still be alive.”
Pugh-Douglas said her son has a 1-year-old daughter and was trying to get a job in security.
He now faces murder, assault and robbery charges.
Pugh-Douglas said her only wish is that he doesn’t get life behind bars.
“I know my son is going to get a long time in jail,” she said. “I just hope he gets a chance to come home some day.”
