WHITE PLAINS – Westchester County prosecutors continue to present their overwhelming evidence that Hasseem Jenkins delivered the deadly blows that ended Maria Coto’s life.

What jurors and court watchers are waiting for is Jenkins’ defense attorney’s opportunity to try and explain why.

Jenkins is charged with second-degree murder and several other counts in the May 14, 2024, attack on Coto, a Westchester County social worker, at an apartment behind the South Street Deli. Jenkins faces 25 years to life in state prison if convicted.

Family members related to Coto and Jenkins were in Judge George Fufidio’s third-floor courtroom when prosecutors played police cam videos that capture the horror of the attack as well as a sometimes angry, and sometimes tearful and pleading Jenkins asking what happened.

Wilfredo “Freddy” Sanchez, who lived in the apartment where police found Jenkins and Cotos’s lifeless battered body, took the stand and told jurors he heard some noise and came out of his apartment to see what was happening. 

Jenkins attack began in the apartment across the landing from the Sanchez apartment. When Coto tried to flee, Jenkins chased her across the landing into Sanchez’s apartment. He saw Jenkins kick Coto in the head more than 10 times after she fell. Sanchez yelled out, “Stop, you’re going to kill that lady.”

During his formal police interrogation conducted by Peekskill Detective Fabian Gonzalez, jurors saw Jenkins say he saw a lady come out of nowhere, knock on the open door and show some papers. He didn’t know what she was doing there and she didn’t say why she was there. He thought she was looking for somebody, Jenkins said.

After the attack began, Peekskill Police received a call for help and dispatched officers to the scene. They tasered Jenkins, put him in handcuffs, and called for the ambulance that took Coto to Westchester Medical Center. She died without ever regaining consciousness on June 19.

Determining Jenkins’ state of mind during the attack

Over the course of four days of testimony from Oct. 17 to Oct. 22, prosecutors played several hours of Peekskill Police body camera videos showing Jenkins escorted out of the crime scene to the police station, cuffed to a bench in a holding cell, and agreeing to speak with an investigator in a detective office.

Jenkins is angry, loud and aggressive when police arrive on the scene. Through the several hours of video, he seems to calm down slowly. He shifts from seeming to exult in what he’s done (“fuck that bitch, that bitch is dead”), to denying that he did anything, and then finally to pleading for help from police – “I kicked somebody, I know I did that. That’s not me. Oh my gosh – no, no, no, no, no. This is not good – no, no, no, no. I’m sorry, [Sgt.] Regg, please help me.”

Prosecutors played the two videos out of sequence, showing jurors the interrogation first and then the two-and-a half hours prior to that with Jenkins in a holding cell.

During the holding cell video, at one point Jenkins stands partially upright, chained to the bench and yells “Did I kill somebody!” over and over. “What the fuck did I do? I was at my uncle’s house – why is there blood on my shoes?”  

During his time in the holding cell Jenkins denied using drugs. “I don’t smoke PCP, I don’t do any type of drugs. I’m not a bad guy.” But during his later interrogation, while insisting he only smoked a cigarette just before the attack, he said he smoked PCP in the afternoon before he got to his uncle’s apartment at the scene of the attack where Coto first arrived, and that he did smoke PCP recreationally. He said he would “never” smoke again or do a drug.

He consistently claimed throughout his time in the holding cell that someone must have given him a tainted cigarette to smoke that afternoon on South Street. “Did they put something in my cigarette? 

“Why would my own family do that to me? My life is over.” Jenkins sinks to floor in front of the bench, hands cuffed to his left and right, with his head down crying “Please help me officer. I just started my job. I smoked a cigarette and started bugging out. What did I do – why are my boots bloody?”

According to court documents, toxicology results determined that Jenkins was under the influence of a highly narcotic, psychotic-inducing, paranoid inducing substance “which could effect his intent and resultant behavior.”

Jenkins attorney Angelo MacDonald is expected to offer an “involuntary intoxication” explanation, alleging that a cigarette that Jenkins was given and smoked that afternoon was laced with a drug that caused him to attack Coto.

Other prosecution witnesses included Dr. Chirag Gandhi, Director of Neurosurgery at Westchester Medical Center, who treated Coto after the attack. Gandhi described catastrophic brain injuries – multiple hemorrhages, facial fractures, and swelling – that left her permanently unresponsive. “No amount of surgery is fixing that,” he told the jury.

Rosana Sanchez, Wilfredo Sanchez’s wife, testified through a Spanish interpreter that she recalled seeing Coto arrive carrying a folder and ID, apparently looking for someone. After mistakenly entering Jenkins’s uncle’s apartment, Coto was confronted by Jenkins, who emerged “furious” and shouting, “What are you going to do to me?” Coto appeared terrified and ran into the Sanchez apartment seeking help, with Jenkins chasing after her. 

Jessica Ganus, Director of Peekskill’s Section 8 housing program, said Jenkins received a violation notice in March 2024 for failing to pay his rent. [Prosecutors argued Jenkins targeted Coto after recognizing her as a county social worker.] 

The trial continues in White Plains County Court each weekday except Thursdays. Prosecutors could complete their case next week and then the defense will offer its case. Assistant District Attorney Kevin Jones and Trial Division Chief Nadine Nagler are presenting the case for the Westchester County District Attorney’s office.