Frank James plead guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court accepting responsibility for the April 12th mass shooting. Gus Rosendale reports.
The suspect accused of setting off smoke grenades and opening fire on a crowded rush-hour subway in Brooklyn in April 2022 has requested a prison term of less than two decades ahead of sentencing.
Frank James, who referred to himself as the "prophet of doom" in online posts before the shooting, should be handed a sentence of 18 years, according to his attorneys, citing the 64-year-old's deteriorating health. James pleaded guilty in January to federal terrorism charges in the case that shocked the country and set off a city-wide manhunt.
"Given his age, his health, and the Bureau of Prisons’ notoriously inadequate medical care...Frank James will not survive any prison sentence that reflects the harm he caused," court documents read. "But Mr. James is not evil. He is very, very ill. A just sentence in this case tempers the natural urge for retribution with mercy."
The defense attorneys said that an 18-year sentence is "properly calculated" and one that "vastly outpaces his life expectancy."
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Ten riders were injured in the shooting that turned a subway car and Sunset Park station platform into a bloodbath, but somewhat miraculously, no one was killed and none suffered life-threatening gunshot wounds. A motive for the shooting is still not known.
Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 28. He faces up to life in prison on each of the 11 counts, according to the DOJ.
While he has not yet expressed remorse for his actions, James has previously said he will do that when he is sentenced.
Dressed as a maintenance worker, James fired a 9-mm handgun at least 33 times after setting off a pair of smoke grenades — wounding victims ranging in age from 16 to 60 in the legs, back, buttocks and hand as the train pulled into a station.
One of the city's worst subway attacks in recent years, it sparked a 30-hour manhunt that ended only when he called the police on himself -- and raised questions about the MTA's surveillance footage system and camera protocol in the following months.
Aside from those shot, other subway riders were hurt as well, mainly in the chaos that ensued after the barrage of rapid gunfire and curtains of smoke in the midst of the morning rush. Prosecutors said the assault was “intended to inflict maximum damage at the height of rush hour.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Winik said James set off smoke grenades before shooting so that passengers would flee to one side of the subway car, enabling him to shoot them more easily. The trajectory of his gunshots showed he was aiming “center mass” for maximum lethality, she said.
The attack upended the ritual of the morning commute, "endangering the lives of countless New Yorkers who rely on the safety of the subway system every day," Winik said.
Following the attack, a law enforcement search of James's apartment and storage unit uncovered a cache of weapons, prosecutors said, including handgun ammunition, a barrel for a handgun that allows a silencer to be attached, a high-capacity rifle magazine, a stun gun and a blue smoke cannister.
James initially pleaded not guilty to charges in connection with the attack, but told his lawyers in December that he wanted to plead guilty. They didn't immediately explain why he wanted to admit his involvement. His lawyers said James had struggled with mental illness, but James told the judge he was of sound mind while admitting his guilt on Tuesday.
Wearing a beige jail jumpsuit and reading from a prepared statement, James said during a January hearing that "while it was not my intention to cause death, I was fully aware a death or deaths could occur as a result of my discharging a firearm in such an enclosed space such as a subway car."
He pleaded guilty to all 11 counts in his indictment. Ten of those charges — each one corresponding to a specific victim — accuse him of committing a terrorist attack against a mass transportation system carrying riders and workers. The 11th charge accuses James of discharging a firearm during a violent crime.
He didn’t have a plea agreement, and prosecutors have been seeking to put him in prison for decades. His lawyers have argued that his conduct amounted to aggravated assault, not attempted murder, which would not warrant a life sentence.
"Mr. James has accepted responsibility for his crimes since he turned himself in to law enforcement," James' lawyers, Mia Eisner-Grynberg and Amanda David, said in a statement. "A just sentence in this case will carefully balance the harm he caused with his age, his health, and the Bureau of Prisons’ notoriously inadequate medical care."
In a letter to Judge William F. Kuntz II, prosecutors previously indicated they planned to seek a harsher punishment than the roughly 32-to-39-year sentence that federal sentencing guidelines would recommend.
James planned the attack for years and endangered the lives of dozens of people, prosecutors said in the letter. He allegedly began purchasing items to use in an attack as early as 2017, including smoke grenades, weapons, ammo and a disguise, the Department of Justice said. In the months leading up to the attack, prosecutors said James conducted online searches for things relating to NYC and the subway system, particularly in the area where he conducted the attack and where he parked his rented U-Haul van.
"Frank James cold-bloodedly shot innocent New Yorkers traveling on the subway in Brooklyn and brought terror to our great city. James’s crimes of violence have been met with swift justice,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York. “James’s admission of guilt to all eleven counts of the superseding indictment acknowledges the terror and pain he caused. This guilty plea is an important step towards holding James fully accountable and helping the victims of the defendant’s violence and our great city heal."
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Previously, he vowed to fight the charges and refused to leave his jail cell to appear at an earlier court hearing, leading Kuntz to issue an order instructing U.S. Marshals to use “all necessary force” to ensure that James showed up to Tuesday's plea hearing.
James balked at being taken to a court date in last October but appeared later that day after Kuntz issued a similar order for him to be forced to court if necessary.
Defense attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday, when courts were closed.
Before the shooting, James, who is Black, posted dozens of videos online in which he ranted about race, violence and his struggles with mental illness. In some, he decried the treatment of Black people and talked about how he was so frustrated, "I should have gotten a gun and just started shooting." In one video, he appeared to be in a packed New York City subway car, raising his finger to point out passengers one by one.
In other videos foreshadowing his plans, he stated "if you hear the name Frank James on the news, if something happens to a Frank James that’s sixty-something years old, chances are that’s me."
James, who's been locked up at a Brooklyn federal jail since his arrest, told Kuntz that a jail psychologist visits him once a month “to speak with me and see how I'm doing."
In a jailhouse interview with The Associated Press in August, James spoke about his lifelong struggle with mental health and the notoriety he gained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he befriended the disgraced R&B star R. Kelly.
“It’s going to be a long case,” James said. “People don’t have enough information yet to judge me... All in all I’m a good person at heart. I’ve never hurt anybody.”
After the guilty plea was announced, the MTA said in a statement that those impacted by the "reprehensible attack deserved and received justice...we hope this perpetrator will never again be free to hurt innocent people."
