KEY POINTS

  • A court order deemed Grafton Thomas as mentally unfit to stand trial and defend himself in court
  • Thomas was responsible for the Hanukkah attack on December of last year
  • The attack left one dead and injured four others
  • His lawyer argued that having the illness didn't made Thomas' actions an act of "domestic terrorism"

A U.S. District Court Judge has ruled that Grafton Thomas, the suspect behind the brutal Hanukkah stabbing in December of last year, as mentally unfit to stand trial for the crime that he had committed.

In a court order issued Monday (April 20), Judge Cathy Seibel ordered the 37-year-old Thomas to be “treated at a suitable facility” to determine if he has the capacity to “permit criminal proceedings to go forward against him.”

The order pointed that the treatment will not go past four months and the Bureau of Prisons to provide the court with update reports within the first 30 days, said ABC News.

Members of the Jewish community gather outside the home of rabbi Chaim Rottenbergin Monsey, in New York on December 29, 2019 after a machete attack that took place earlier outside the rabbi's home during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah
Members of the Jewish community gather outside the home of rabbi Chaim Rottenbergin Monsey, in New York on December 29, 2019 after a machete attack that took place earlier outside the rabbi's home during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah AFP / Kena Betancur

Court documents obtained by NBC News also described Thomas to be suffering from a “mental disease,” making him “mentally incompetent” to defend himself.

Thomas was indicted January after he attacked Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg's home amid a Hanukkah celebration, a Jewish holiday to commemorate the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, on December 28, 2019.

The suspect allegedly forced himself inside the Monsey, New York home and attacked the people using a machete. The assault led to the death of one man and injured four others.

One of Thomas' victims, 72-year-old Josef Neumann, died last month from the injuries he sustained during the attack, said Rockland County District Attorney Thomas E. Walsh II in a statement.

The indictment charged Thomas with various federal hate crimes, including five counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious belief, three counts of assault, three counts of attempted assault and two counts of burlgary.

If convicted of all charges, Thomas could face up to 25 years in prison, said NBC News.

Michael Sussman, Thomas' legal counsel, also said that his client is suffering from “severe psychiatric issues” and has been known to have had “psychiatric hospitalizations” in the past.

This claim argued that what Thomas did was not an act of “domestic terrorism.”

“While others were making that claim and inflaming the public, I stated that Mr. Thomas had a long well-documented history of mental illness and that, tragically, this motivated his conduct in late December,” Sussman told ABC News.

The lawyer also said that Thomas is not anti-Semantic, despite the fact that investigators found anti-Semantic writings in his home, as well as articles about “Nazi culture,” Adolf Hitler and a drawing of a swastika.

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