Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that William Blount has been convicted of robbery in the first degree, assault in the first degree and other crimes for brutally attacking a straphanger as she entered the Queens Plaza subway station in Long Island City in 2022. Blount approached the victim from behind, kicked her down the stairs and repeatedly hit her in the head with a hammer before fleeing with the victim’s tote bag.

District Attorney Katz said: “This defendant repeatedly bashed an innocent straphanger in the head with a hammer. The victim – who was simply trying to use the subway as millions of New Yorkers do every day – suffered multiple skull fractures. Thanks to the extraordinary intervention by emergency medical personnel, who reduced swelling of the woman’s brain, she was able to recuperate and reclaim some quality of life. I thank my prosecutors and NYPD officers who helped achieve justice in this case.”

Blount, 60, whose last known address was on William Street in Manhattan, was convicted yesterday of assault in the first degree, robbery in the first and second degrees and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. The defendant was acquitted of attempted murder charges.

The six-week jury trial began on February 24, 2025. Supreme Court John Zoll, who presided at trial, set the defendant’s sentencing date for May 7, 2025, at which time Blount faces up to 25 years to life in prison.

District Attorney Katz said that, according to the charges and trial testimony, at approximately 11:20 p.m. on February 24, 2022, a 58-year-old woman was walking down the stairs to the Queens Plaza subway station as the defendant, who was walking with a black cane, approached her from behind. Blount kicked the victim down the stairs, struck her on the head 13 times with a hammer and then grabbed the victim’s multi-colored handbag before fleeing the scene.

The victim was transported to a hospital where she was treated for multiple skull fractures and underwent a bilateral craniectomy to repair her skull with titanium mesh. She also sustained a broken finger and other injuries.

Investigators tracked the perpetrator’s movements using video surveillance, which showed Blount carrying the victim’s bag as he walked from the subway station to a relative’s house on 12^th Street in Long Island City.

Blount was arrested on February 27, 2022.  On February 28, 2022, a search warrant was executed on the house on 12^th Street and police recovered a hammer, a black cane and the victim’s tote bag from the location. Further testing revealed a mixture of the defendant’s and the victim’s DNA on the hammer, and a mixture of contributors of DNA including the defendant’s, on the black cane.

The investigation was conducted by Police Officer Matthew Haggerty of the Queens Transit Robbery Squad of the New York City Police Department.

Assistant District Attorney Lauren D. Reilly of the District Attorney’s Career Criminal Major Crimes Bureau is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Assistant District Attorney Skerdjan Bana of the District Attorney’s Felony Trial Bureau I, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Michael Whitney, Bureau Chief of the Career Criminal Major Crimes Bureau, and Rosemary Chao, Bureau Chief of the Felony Trial Bureau I, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Shawn Clark.