Yesterday, the man who confessed to killing and dismembering 8-year-old Hasidic boy Leiby Kletzky last month was found mentally competent to stand trial. Levi Aron pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and kidnapping charges during his arraignment in Brooklyn Supreme Court. His next court appearance will come on October 14, and his lawyers will be scrambling to determine whether they can still pursue an insanity defense, which is an extremely rare defense strategy for a felony case. But then again,"no other defense comes to mind” in this case, said Deborah W. Denno, a professor at Fordham University. more ›

Prosecution attorneys yesterday argued that the 25 crime scene photos of Carlos Castro—the Portuguese fashion writer who was castrated and murdered in a Times Square hotel in January—are "too gruesome" to be given to defense lawyers. The judge in the case disagreed, however, saying that lawyers for Renato Seabra—the male model accused of the grisly murder—should be allowed to examine the photographs. more ›

Two more tourists who were victims of a 2006 stabbing rampage in Midtown testified against Kenny Alexis, a schizophrenic homeless man accused in the attacks. The two Canadian women in their twenties recounted the 3 a.m. morning when they headed to McDonald's for a late night snack. Through a French translator, Melanie Carrier told the court, "I put my hand to my back, and I had blood on my hand...I looked at Audrey, and she had blood. I remembered I had a lot of blood." The Post describes how "the knife had sliced into her spine, cutting through both the sheath and the membrane that protect the precious spinal cord." On Friday the jury heard from Christopher McCarthy, who had been stabbed in the heart by Alexis while on the subway. The Post says that Alexis is "arguing that he didn't do it, but if he did, he was too crazy to be responsible for his actions. " more ›

Yesterday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, the trial began in the case of Kenny Alexis, a homeless man who was arrested in 2006 after stabbing three tourists, one of whom he knifed in the heart while riding the downtown C train. The victim, 24-year-old Christopher McCarthy told the jury, "Your body isn't ready for it. You prick your finger, you cut your hand slicing a bagel—this was 1,000 times worse. Maybe more." Alexis is trying to get off on an insanity defense, claiming he is a paranoid schizophrenic. In opening statements, assistant DA Christopher Ryan said, “Even people who are deeply, deeply mentally ill know the difference between right and wrong. Mr. Alexis is an antisocial, ill-tempered man who’s angry at the world.” more ›