The Queens woman accused of pushing a 49-year-old woman to her death onto the Times Square subway tracks declined a mental health examination on Tuesday, her defense attorney said.
Melanie Liverpool-Turner, 30, was held without bail during her arraignment on Tuesday morning and charged with second-degree murder.
Liverpool-Turner, who worked as a home health aid up until three weeks ago, is accused of pushing Connie Watton, also of Queens, on to the tracks in front of a southbound No. 1 train on Monday afternoon.
On Tuesday, Liverpool-Turner wasn’t very talkative, but shouted out when the assistant district attorney said the St. Albans resident made a statement to police, her attorney, Mathew Mari, said.
“She she got very agitated and kind of just screamed out, ‘no I didn’t,” Mari said. “The only thing that she wanted me to say to the judge, and the only thing that she actually did say, was that ‘I am not guilty.’”
Mari said Liverpool-Turner — who has one prior, sealed arrest for assault from November 2009 — did not want to be examined by a mental health professional, and he didn’t request the examination yet.
Liverpool-Turner was arrested just moments after she allegedly pushed Watton when witnesses flagged down two officers who were standing on the platform, NYPD Chief of Manhattan Detectives William Aubry said on Monday.
The pair had gotten into an argument before Watton was pushed, but it wasn’t immediately clear what that dispute was about, police said.
“What happened here today is tragic and my heart goes out to the victim’s family,” NYPD Transit Chief Joseph Fox said after the incident.
