An Ithaca jury Monday found Nagee Green guilty of assault but it did not come to a consensus on the charge of murder and manslaughter, according to The Ithaca Journal.
Green is accused of stabbing two Ithaca College students: Rahiem Williams, who survived the encounter, and Anthony Nazaire, who died at 19 after being stabbed outside Cornell’s Olin Hall on Aug. 28, 2016.
If Nazaire was in fact murdered, his death would be the first murder in the City of Ithaca since 2011.
GREEN
Green’s attorney argued in court that the evidence did not prove his client murdered Nazaire: the only DNA found on the alleged murder weapon — a knife — belonged to Williams and no eyewitnesses identified Green as the stabber, according to The Ithaca Voice.
But Tompkins County’s District Attorney Matthew Van Houten argued in court that Green clearly had intent to kill, citing evidence that Green was carrying a “military-style” knife on the night of the stabbing, according to The Voice.
Judge John C. Rowley dismissed the jury after receiving its decisions, and he indicated the case would go to retrial, according to The Voice.
The judge said he would normally ask the jury to keep deliberating, according to The Journal, but this time, he felt the jury had asked enough questions and had deliberated for a long enough that the jurors’ opinions were not going to change.
“We are ready to try the case again and we believe the judge will give us a trial,” Van Houten told The Voice.
Brittney Chew / Sun Assistant Photography Editor
Students gather at Muller Chapel at Ithaca College on Aug. 29, 2016 to remember Anthony Nazaire, who was stabbed on Cornell’s campus the day before.
Nazaire’s family has demanded a life sentence for Green, whom Nazaire’s sister, Kiara, called a “murderer” and an “animal” that “needs to be caged up like an animal.”
The family said it intends to establish the ‘Anthony Nazaire scholarship,’ which would be aimed at helping young kids who are financially limited pursue a college education.
Green’s attorney told The Voice the jury’s indecisiveness “is indicative of the evidence in the case” and that he was “disappointed with the assault charge.”
Green was indicted on Nov. 17, 2016, about 80 days after the stabbing. Ithaca Police took Green, their top suspect, into custody on Nov. 7, 2016 following an investigation that lasted nearly ten weeks, The Sun reported.
A conference between the two parties and Judge Rowley is scheduled for July 21, according to The Voice.