A profession criminal with a prolonged rap sheet, together with slugging a 76-year-old man in January, is charged with capturing a tourist for his dear watch exterior a four-star Midtown lodge, police instructed The Post Wednesday.
Nathaniel Owens, 35, who can be on parole for a 2012 weapons rap, was hit with attempted murder fees within the March 18 assault exterior the Fifty Hotel & Suites by Affinia in Midtown, the NYPD mentioned.
He was arraigned Wednesday and ordered held with out bail.
Prosecutors mentioned Owens attacked tourist Pierrick Jamaux, 33, who was visiting from Hong Kong, and shot him a number of instances within the legs and groin to get at his $100,000 Richard Mille timepiece.
Jamaux continuously flashed the ritzy watch on social media.
The cryptocurrency knowledgeable later instructed The Post that he had “absolutely no clue who did this” — solely that it was “to steal my watch.”
“Someone knew I had the watch and somebody knew I’d be back in the hotel at that time,” he mentioned of the assault on East fiftieth Street close to Third Avenue.
The gunman fled with out getting it, nevertheless, thanks partly to 1 of Jamaux’s feminine mates bravely leaping on the attacker’s again.
Jamaux, a French native, was additionally along with his 26-year-old mannequin spouse, Sarah Watts, on the time, later gushing about her help in an Instagram submit.
“I would have never made it out of ICU without your love and care,” he wrote of his ongoing restoration at Bellevue.
“You were here for me and I will be here for you as long as I am. I love you my superwoman ♥,” he wrote.
Owens was later busted for the assault.
He already had 18 prior arrests since 2012, together with for drug possession, assault and criminal possession of a weapon, the sources mentioned.
His earlier arrest got here on Jan. 23, when he allegedly punched the aged sufferer whereas he was within the center of instructing a Zoom class.
“He’s a very dangerous person,” that sufferer, Edgar Sosa-Mieles, instructed The Post on Wednesday.
Sosa-Mieles mentioned Owens, who lives in the identical constructing, is “a squatter” who introduced nothing however complications for the tenants.
“I told the assistant DA I intended to push this as far as I could because I wanted him out of this building because he was a danger to everyone in the building,” he mentioned. “I believed that my constructing was the most secure place round.
“He found a way to sneak in and brought his illegal lifestyle in,” he mentioned. “He’s in jail now, right? Good. That’s where he belongs.”
Owens was arraigned on felony assault fees Jan. 24 and freed on supervised launch on the advice of prosecutors, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office mentioned.
The cost was diminished to a misdemeanor throughout a Feb. 28 courtroom look, the place a choose dominated Owens might be launched with no bail circumstances. He is due again in courtroom in that case on April 4.
Prosecutors cited that open case, in addition to Owens’ criminal file and his historical past of skipping courtroom dates, when asking Judge Anne Swern to order him held with out bail throughout his arraignment Wednesday.
Owens has two prior unlawful gun convictions, in 2005 in Brooklyn and in 2012 in Queens. He served time in state jail for second-degree criminal possession of a weapon after being caught with a stolen and loaded Ruger .380, however was launched on parole in March 2018, legislation enforcement sources mentioned.
Assistant District Attorney Diana Serebrenik mentioned Owens tried to keep away from being caught within the assault on Jamaux by altering his garments earlier than and after the capturing, which was captured on surveillance video.
A search of his dwelling on Tuesday turned up two bulletproof vests, a protecting protect and a police uniform shirt with an actual precinct pin on the collar, Serebrenik mentioned.
Owens’ protection lawyer, Chris Van Zele of New York County Defender Services, requested for bail to be set at $20,000, questioning how his consumer got here to be recognized because the suspect.
Owens faces a minimal of 20 years to life if convicted. His subsequent courtroom date is Friday.
