A veteran subway train operator left for dead after being stabbed 11 times inside a Brooklyn station last year lost a chance to face off with his attacker Wednesday when the man refused to show up in person for his sentencing.
Jonathan Davalos, who pleaded guilty in August to the attempted murder of Myran Pollack at the Crown Heights-Utica Avenue station, instead appeared virtually on a screen inside a courtroom, forcing his previously agreed-upon sentencing of 15 years behind bars to be postponed until Dec. 15.
Pollack, who worked for the MTA for more than 25 years, recently retired after sustaining severe injuries last Oct. 8, when he was stabbed in the back, arms and legs when he woke Davalos up at the No. 4 line’s last stop in Brooklyn.
“I was looking forward to seeing him because the last time I saw him, he was above me with a knife,” Pollack said while leaning on a cane outside the Brooklyn courthouse.
For Davalos’s previous court appearances, Pollack had stayed out of the courtroom. But he showed up for the scheduled sentencing Wednesday in hopes of speaking directly to the 27-year-old Bronx man.
“I wanted to let him know exactly how much pain that I’m going through because of that incident,” he said. “And to this day, I’m still going through the same things over and over again.”
Sources told THE CITY that Davalos — who was on probation at the time of the attack for a previous assault on a transit worker in The Bronx — derailed the sentencing by trying to harm himself before the Wednesday court appearance.
Jonathan Davalos refused to appear in person at scheduled sentencing for stabbing a transit worker last year, Oct. 22, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
But after prosecutors and defense lawyers initially agreed to a virtual hearing, the sentencing was then postponed because, under a previous case law, it would have risked the sentencing being overturned.
Pollack and supporters from Transport Workers Local Union 100 and MTA officials who also showed up for the sentencing were left disappointed when State Supreme Court Justice Carolina Holderness postponed the final step in the case.
“Justice for Myron Pollack has not been done, so we have to come back yet again,” said John Chiarello, president of TWU Local 100. “I’m beyond words, I’m really beyond words.”
Pollack, 60, was four months from retirement when Davalos attacked him on the train and then chased him onto a station platform. According to the MTA, he was among 46 subway workers assaulted in 2024, when assaults against transit employees fell by more than 30% from the previous year.
“It’s just unacceptable that he would have to go through this type of assault,” said New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow, who was among the crowd of courtroom supporters. “It is a shame that the system has prolonged it.”
Pollack said the backing from coworkers and transit supervisors was “overwhelming.”
“I know I don’t deserve this type of outpouring,” he said. “But I really appreciate and love them all for coming out to support me.”
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