‘Urban nightmare’: 20 years for Melanie Liverpool, who killed Filipino immigrant Connie Watton by pushing her in front of New York subway train
- Melanie Liverpool had been released from a psychiatric facility just days before she murdered Connie Watton in 2016
- Watton’s husband called Liverpool a ‘demented piece of garbage’ at her sentencing
A woman who pushed a commuter to her death in front of a New York City subway train just days after being released from a psychiatric facility was sentenced Friday to 20-years-to-life in prison.
Melanie Liverpool, 33, admitted shoving 49-year-old Connie Watton off a subway platform at the Times Square station in 2016 – a harrowing crime that made headlines and tapped into a common fear of commuters around the world.
“This is the quintessential urban nightmare when a total stranger takes it upon themselves to snuff out someone else’s life,” said judge Michael Obus, according to the New York Post.
Liverpool was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, according to her attorney, Aaron Wallenstein, and had been released from a psychiatric facility just five days before the killing. She pleaded guilty to murder last month.
The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jnr, condemned the killing as an “unconscionable crime”.