NYC stabbings suspect known to Boston courts

In February, the homeless drifter with a knife terrorized a woman in Dorchester, following her home, according to court records. At the Legal Sea Foods restaurant at Logan Airport the following month, he allegedly flew off the handle, cursing and breaking a glass. He then went to a nearby store, where his bizarre behavior left the clerk ``shaken and nervous."

The next day, an East Boston woman told police he attacked her car with a 4-foot pipe.

Kenny Alexis, whom New York authorities arrested early Wednesday in connection with four Manhattan stabbings in 13 hours, had been arrested three times for these threatening incidents in Boston , according to court records obtained by the Globe yesterday.

Alexis, 20, was released by the courts because the offenses were not serious enough to keep him off the streets. Twice when Alexis was arraigned, judges ordered him to be examined by mental health professionals, but each time he was found competent, said David Procopio, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.

He was sent to Bridgewater State Hospital for 20 days for a mental health evaluation after the last incident, and psychiatrists declared him competent to stand trial. A judge let him go with a warning to take his medication.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, New Yorkers were terrorized by Alexis, who authorities say went on a rampage, stabbing four people, including a Texas tourist on a subway, and resurrecting fears of random violence in the city. Yesterday at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court, he entered no plea. A prosecutor said Alexis admitted to the assaults.

``He came to New York to commit crimes," said Assistant District Attorney Christopher Ryan.

The judge ordered that Alexis be kept in jail without bail and that he have a psychiatric exam.

Back in Boston yesterday, several people said they had encountered Alexis and were shaken by the experiences.

While his alleged criminal behavior in Boston had violent overtones, Alexis is not known to have assaulted anyone outside New York .

In February, Alexis was charged with trespassing after he jumped into a cab while holding a knife and followed the taxi's female passenger onto her Dorchester porch, refusing to leave, according to court records.

A Dorchester District Court judge, who ordered a court psychiatrist to examine Alexis after that incident, said he had mental health issues and ``needs to be watched closely." He was held overnight, examined by a court psychiatrist, and released after the doctor deemed Alexis ``limited but not mentally ill," Procopio said.

On March 22, he was arrested after a hostess at Legal Sea Foods in Logan International Airport told Alexis she was still reviewing his job application for a kitchen position and he allegedly began to curse and flail his arms, knocking a glass to the floor, according to Jeannie Nunes , an employee who witnessed his outburst.

``He got really belligerent and abrasive, and was invading her personal space," Nunes said.

Alexis allegedly then walked into a nearby Brookstone store where manager Janine Loud was working . She said he made suggestive comments while rummaging through the merchandise and took a small, empty earphones case before a state trooper arrived and asked him for identification.

``I was shaken," Loud said. ``He was throwing around products and harassing me."

Alexis was charged with shoplifting, disorderly conduct, and trespassing and was brought to East Boston District Court for arraignment. A judge decided he did not appear to understand the proceedings and ordered him held overnight.

The next day Alexis was brought back to court and released. Procopio said the East Boston judge was not aware of the prior Dorchester case because of a record-keeping problem.

Later that day, Alexis was rearrested on a nearby East Boston street for allegedly striking a woman's car with a 4-foot metal pipe. He was charged with malicious destruction of property, brought back into court, and ordered to undergo the evaluation at Bridgewater.

Rosemary Scapicchio, a Boston defense attorney who has represented several seriously mentally ill clients, said the system failed Alexis and she was not surprised .

``They're evaluated for 30 days, but they get little oversight or treatment and invariably they're found competent to stand trial," she said. ``I had a client who was in and out of mental institutions since he was 13 and was evaluated at Bridgewater and I had boxes and boxes of records to get to them and they didn't even want to examine them before they ruled him competent."

Scapicchio said Bridgewater and other state mental health facilities are woefully understaffed.

``There isn't a lot of funding because no one wants to spend the money on mental health of prisoners," she said.

Diane Wiffin, a spokeswoman for the hospital, declined to comment on the treatment of Alexis, citing patient confidentiality laws.

Alexis had been homeless sporadically since at least 2005, according to court records and interviews with officials at the Pine Street Inn , a shelter where he sometimes stayed.

Some specialists said it is often difficult to tell which defendants need to be institutionalized.

``The judges and prosecutors can't look into a crystal ball and see if someone is going to commit a serious act of violence," said David Frank , a former Suffolk prosecutor and now a writer for Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. ``It's an overburdened system."

Globe correspondents Emma Fitzsimmons and Shawntaye Hopkins contributed to this report. Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com Associated Press contributed to this report.