Jose Alba update: Manhattan DA drops murder charges against NYC bodega worker

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office asked a judge on Tuesday, July 19, to dismiss murder charges against Jose Alba, a Harlem bodega worker accused of stabbing a man. The District Attorney's Office stated officially that it filed a motion in Manhattan Criminal Court to dismiss the case against the 61-year-old bodega worker.

DA Alvin Bragg's decision will bring an end to Alba's three-week ordeal after he admitted to having acted in self-defense when he stabbed Austin Simon inside Blue Moon on July 1, 2022. Jose Alba reportedly spent five days on Rikers Island recovering from an infection caused by a stab wound he received during the altercation.

On Tuesday morning, the second-degree murder case against Alba was filed for dismissal by Jennifer Sigall, the assistant district attorney under Bragg, who also sent a copy of the motion to Michelle Villasenor-Grant, the defendant's lawyer. By Tuesday afternoon, a judge had dismissed the case against Jose Alba.

The decision to dismiss the second-degree murder charges came weeks after The Post highlighted Alba's situation and how he was detained at Rikers Island on a $250,000 bond.

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Surveillance video confirms Jose Alba's innocence, shows that he acted in self-defense

The District Attorney's Office submitted security photos from inside the bodega to prove Alba's innocence. The photos showed Jose Alba being shoved by the much-younger Austin Simon, just before the former pulled a knife.

The video reportedly captured Alba being stabbed by Simon's girlfriend. As the worker resisted, he killed the ex-con with a fatal slash. No charges have been filed against Simon's girlfriend so far.

Ever since his arrest, Alba maintained that he acted in self-defense. The dismissal memo stated:

"One potential defense is that Alba reasonably believed that Simon was about to use deadly physical force. The law provides that a person may use deadly physical force to defend oneself if the person reasonably believes that another person is using or about to use deadly physical force."

The motion continued:

"… Simon’s conduct in entering the store’s small, private area, throwing Alba against the wall to a place he could not escape, and grabbing him by the collar could inspire deep fear in an older and shorter man as to what might be in store next."

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More about the incident

According to authorities, the incident stemmed from a confrontation between Alba and Simon's girlfriend over a bag of chips. When her debit card was rejected, the girlfriend claimed that Alba had taken her daughter's chips. She then ran home to get Simon.

Moments later, Simon entered the area behind the counter, pushed Jose Alba against a wall of shelves, grabbed him by the collar, lifted him out of a chair, and dragged him out of the area. Simon then declared that he wanted Alba to apologize to the girl and meet him outside.

The motion implied that Alba might have believed he was about to be robbed when Simon barged into the bodega ten minutes later. They also insinuated that Simon might have committed a crime by cornering the employee behind the counter.

To defend himself, Jose Alba pulled a knife from a shelf next to the counter and repeatedly stabbed Simon as they wrestled, as per the prosecution. They added that Simon was holding Alba by the collar and forcing him out.

After the attack, Simon was declared dead at the hospital. According to the medical examiner, he sustained six stab wounds, one of which ruptured the internal jugular vein on the left side of his neck.

According to court records, Simon was 35 years old and six feet tall, while Jose Alba is 61 years old and just five feet seven inches tall.