Errol Irving, a 62 year-old ex-convict, took the stand at his murder trial today, and managed to complicate his case.
Irving, who served 20 years in prison for sexual abuse, sodomy, and incest, is charged with the February 2011 stabbing death of Shayne Sinclair, 41, the superintendent of his building on East 51st Street between avenues K and L. Prosecutors charge that Irving stabbed an unarmed Sinclair following a dispute about heat and hot water in the building.
Among the prosecution’s witnesses was Jalaune Meke, 40, who had lived downstairs on the night of the stabbing, and who on Tuesday told jurors she heard Irving and Sinclair arguing as she tended to her child. She testified that she heard Irving’s Jamaican accent as he and Sinclair screamed at each other. Sinclair, she testified, said, “You act like you don’t know who I am and I come here everyday. If you have a problem with the landlord, you need to take up to the landlord.”
She then testified that she heard a banging sound and when she opened her door, saw Sinclair lying on the floor. She asked him “are you okay?” He nodded that he was. She returned to her apartment but soon checked again, only to find Sinclair unresponsive. She then called 911.
After the state rested its case today, Irving took the stand in his own defense.
He accused Sinclair of assaulting and attempting to rob him before Irving pulled out a knife to “scare him.” He claimed that he did not know that Sinclair had been stabbed until after his arrest.
Irving testified that after Sinclair had pushed him against a wall and punched him repeatedly in the face Irving pulled out a knife because “he was afraid.” When Sinclair backed down the stairs Irving assumed it was because he was scared of the knife, and not because he had been stabbed. Irving testified that Sinclair must have been stabbed when he came towards Irving to assault him.
But during cross examination by Assistant District Attorney Bernarda Villalona, Irving admitted that after telling police one version of the events, he had lied when he later signed a legal document about his whereabouts on the night of the stabbing. He testified that he had filled out and signed the document to “disassociate myself from the trauma of the experience.”
Villalona persisted in her questioning of Irving’s veracity, asking repeatedly whether he had lied when he signed the document. Initially, Irving said he had told the truth, before eventually admitting that he had not.
The admission gave Villalona an opening to question his entire version of the events. But Irving held fast to his insistence that he had not known he had stabbed Sinclair. Villalona countered by asking how, after being charged with murder, he could not have known that he had even injured Sinclair.
Why, she asked, had he thrown away the knife?
Irving replied that he was frightened.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Thursday.
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