Brute convicted in vicious subway hammer attack on NYC health department worker, faces 25 years
A maniac charged in a vicious subway hammer attack on a city health department worker is facing up to 25 years behind bars after being convicted by a Queens jury — with his victim telling The Post she's still haunted by the senseless assault more than three years later.
'Maybe once a year I have a mild recurrence of one symptom, but other than that I am fine,' Nina Rothschild said Thursday, one day after 60-year-old William Blount was convicted of robbery and assault.
'But I do live with the memory of the attack. There isn't a day that goes by when I don't think of it,' she said. 'I'm very happy and very relieved that it is behind me and that he will go away for a very long time.'
Rothschild, 60, was walking down the stairs at the Queens Plaza E, M and R station on Feb. 24, 2022, when Blount came up behind her, slammed her in the head with a hammer 13 times and took her bag, leaving her screaming in pain on the ground, according to police.
Blount, who already had a half-dozen busts and served prison time in the 1980s on a drug conviction, was nabbed by alert cops and booked on attempted murder, assault and robbery charges.
After a six-week trial, Blount was found guilty of robbery, assault and other charges on Wednesday.
'This defendant repeatedly bashed an innocent straphanger in the head with a hammer,' Queens DA Melinda Katz said in a statement. 'The victim — who was simply trying to use the subway as millions of New Yorkers do every day — suffered multiple skull fractures.'
Rothschild, 60, said Thursday that she still rides the subway — but not as frequently.
'I do ride the subway to work every day,' she told The Post. 'but going home from work, I take the bus because it's late.'
She said she had been worried about facing Blount in court during the trial, but said it 'went fine.'
Rothschild said she has no medical symptoms from the incident other than the occasional 'kind of dizziness' that hits her about once a year, a condition that 'has a sort of long complicated name.'
But overall, she said, 'I'm very lucky.'
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