A young man arrested for stabbing his sister’s abusive ex to death on a Bronx street was acting in self-defense, his lawyer says.
Javid Edwin is accused of stabbing 34-year-old Tyrell Scott in the chest during a clash in Riverdale about 5 p.m. July 20.
Edwin’s sister was getting out of work and meeting her siblings so she could practice driving back to the family’s home in Yonkers, Edwin’s lawyer, Geoffrey St. Andrew Stewart, said during Edwin’s murder arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court just before midnight Monday.
The siblings were confronted by Scott, who is the father of Edwin’s sister’s unborn child, on Riverdale Ave. near W. 232nd St., the lawyer says.
“He didn’t come to make peace,” Edwin’s lawyer said of Scott.
Edwin’s sister had a full order of protection against her ex barring him from her workplace and from contact with her or her family, Edwin’s lawyer said in court. The order stems from two pending domestic violence cases in Yonkers in which Scott was charged with aggravated harassment.
“(Scott) approached a vehicle that my client arrived in,” Stewart said in court. “(Scott) immediately started arguing with (Edwin), as my client tried to tell him that he shouldn’t be there, that he should leave. He attacked my client and my client had no choice but to defend himself.”
Edwin, 21, allegedly stabbed Scott in the chest. Medics rushed Scott to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he died two days later.
Edwin was charged with murder after surrendering with his lawyer Monday at the 50th Precinct stationhouse.
Stewart noted his client has a thin build and is more than a decade younger than the victim. “One stab wound, that’s not a person who’s aggressively intentionally trying to kill another person,” he told Judge Philip Pilmar as he argued his client should be granted bail.
Edwin has worked as a hotel waiter in Tarrytown, N.Y, for nearly a year, Stewart said.
“He’s soft-spoken” the lawyer said. “He’s a very respectful young man.”
But prosecutors said Edwin has a warrant in Yonkers for a domestic incident involving property damage, a pending New Jersey case involving terroristic threats and a pending Arizona case involving a fake ID.
Edwin’s lawyer told the judge the victim had a “completely wildly combustible relationship” with Edwin’s sister.
Edwin’s sister ran from the courtroom sobbing and yelling “No! No! No!” as Judge Philip Pilmar ordered her brother held without bail.
“Free him,” an uncle of Edwin who declined to give his name told the Daily News. “We are hard-working people with jobs. It was self-defense. The guy was doing crazy things. [Edwin] didn’t do it for no reason.”
Assistant District Attorney Christopher Simon said that after the stabbing “the defendant then left the scene in a car, did not call the police or an ambulance, despite knowing the [victim] had a bleeding stab wound.”
Edwin’s lawyer acknowledged Edwin did not call 911 but told the judge Edwin’s sister did.
Stewart also noted in court that the victim had six open criminal cases, including one in Queens in which he was charged with criminal contempt for violating an order of protection in a case involving another woman.
“I’ve represented a lot of young men like Tyrell Scott, but I’ve never seen somebody who has six open cases in about five different jurisdictions,” Stewart said in court.
“He was an abusive ex-boyfriend to my client’s sister. In addition, he unleashed a barrage of vandalism, violence, and threats against his family. He threatened my client in text messages. He threatened my client’s life, he threatened my client’s father’s life. He was, unfortunately, a young man very much out of control.”
On a prior occasion, Stewart said, Scott was left behind by Edwin’s family at a night club. An enraged Scott then “chased my client and family members in a vehicle, barricaded them in, used bear spray, of all things, to attack them — all because of the relationship with my client’s sister.”
Scott lived in the Wakefield section of the Bronx, according to cops.
The stabbing happened in front of the building that houses the Bereshit Lifestyle Center, where Elizabeth Baron, 27, went into cardiac arrest just the day before after being injected with NAD+, a trendy anti-aging treatment.
Baron died later that day, July 19, at a Manhattan hospital. The unlicensed doctor who runs the clinic, Luis Rojas Cabrera, was arrested for practicing without a license and reckless endangerment. More serious charges are possible once Baron’s cause of death is determined by the city Medical Examiner.
Edwin’s pregnant sister worked in the same building, though it wasn’t clear if she worked at the wellness center or for another business based there.