NEW YORK CITY, NY – A young mother is in fear for her life after a Bronx judge released on cashless bail the man accused of trying to murder the woman inside of her home while her daughter was sleeping in an adjacent room.
This past March, Kaitlynn Berman was pet-sitting a friend’s cat at her Williamsbridge apartment when the unimaginable happened. According to the victim, her friend’s boyfriend, identified as 22-year-old Christopher Joseph, came to pick the cat up on March 22nd, but Berman recalled that something wasn’t right from the moment he arrived at her door.
Speaking with local news outlet News12, Berman said that Joseph invited himself into the apartment and asked that she put her 3-year-old daughter in the other room so the two of them could talk.
“He said to me that his child's mother gave him permission to have intercourse with me,” recalled of the strange request allegedly made by Joseph, adding, “I had told him, ‘No’.” Berman claimed that’s when things continued to progressively get weirder, telling the outlet, “He did ask me what was the most traumatizing thing that ever happened to me, and then he had asked me for juice.”
What Berman didn’t know at the time while trying to placate her unwanted guest was that she was moments away from being left for dead. As she went to retrieve the juice Joseph reportedly requested, the suspect allegedly produced a knife and began to stab her nearly two dozen times.
“I was able to break the first knife that he brought with him, and then he wound up taking one of my own kitchen knives,” Berman recounted, saying she was stabbed approximately 22 times by her assailant. Pleading for her life, she told her attacker to take whatever he wanted, which he allegedly said in response “that it wasn’t about the money” before allegedly kicking her in the head and taking off with her phone and some cash.
“He kind of just kicked me in the back of the head and walked out the front door, taking my cell phone and money so I couldn't call for help,” adding that neighbors who heard the commotion called 911 as she lay there bleeding out on the floor of her kitchen. Joseph was arrested the following day on charges of attempted murder, with Berman spending the next 48 days in the hospital undergoing several surgeries while recovering from her near-fatal injuries.
A GoFundMe that was set up in the wake of Berman’s near-fatal attack afforded further details on the severity of her injuries, while also highlighting the miraculous aspect that she managed to survive at all.
“The perpetrator stabbed her in the face, the back, the hands, as well as slit her throat,” the fundraiser reads in part, adding, “The responding officers did not think she was going to make it, but she powered through and is now recovering.”
Joseph was held in custody until a December 10th hearing where Judge Darlene R. Goldberg released Joseph on his own recognizance, meaning the man accused of trying to murder Berman in her own home is walking free on cashless bail. Bronx prosecutors reportedly sought bail to be set at $1 million, leaving the victim in this case both confused and horrified at how this could happen.
“I kind of froze. I was like, you know, that doesn't make sense,” Berman said of Judge Goldberg’s decision to release her alleged would-be killer, adding, “There's no way that you just almost killed me and only did nine months.”
Joseph, who is facing 25 years in prison for attempted murder alongside a dozen other offenses cited in the indictment, is due back in court on January 16th.
This past March, Kaitlynn Berman was pet-sitting a friend’s cat at her Williamsbridge apartment when the unimaginable happened. According to the victim, her friend’s boyfriend, identified as 22-year-old Christopher Joseph, came to pick the cat up on March 22nd, but Berman recalled that something wasn’t right from the moment he arrived at her door.
Speaking with local news outlet News12, Berman said that Joseph invited himself into the apartment and asked that she put her 3-year-old daughter in the other room so the two of them could talk.
“He said to me that his child's mother gave him permission to have intercourse with me,” recalled of the strange request allegedly made by Joseph, adding, “I had told him, ‘No’.” Berman claimed that’s when things continued to progressively get weirder, telling the outlet, “He did ask me what was the most traumatizing thing that ever happened to me, and then he had asked me for juice.”
What Berman didn’t know at the time while trying to placate her unwanted guest was that she was moments away from being left for dead. As she went to retrieve the juice Joseph reportedly requested, the suspect allegedly produced a knife and began to stab her nearly two dozen times.
“I was able to break the first knife that he brought with him, and then he wound up taking one of my own kitchen knives,” Berman recounted, saying she was stabbed approximately 22 times by her assailant. Pleading for her life, she told her attacker to take whatever he wanted, which he allegedly said in response “that it wasn’t about the money” before allegedly kicking her in the head and taking off with her phone and some cash.
“He kind of just kicked me in the back of the head and walked out the front door, taking my cell phone and money so I couldn't call for help,” adding that neighbors who heard the commotion called 911 as she lay there bleeding out on the floor of her kitchen. Joseph was arrested the following day on charges of attempted murder, with Berman spending the next 48 days in the hospital undergoing several surgeries while recovering from her near-fatal injuries.
A GoFundMe that was set up in the wake of Berman’s near-fatal attack afforded further details on the severity of her injuries, while also highlighting the miraculous aspect that she managed to survive at all.
“The perpetrator stabbed her in the face, the back, the hands, as well as slit her throat,” the fundraiser reads in part, adding, “The responding officers did not think she was going to make it, but she powered through and is now recovering.”
Joseph was held in custody until a December 10th hearing where Judge Darlene R. Goldberg released Joseph on his own recognizance, meaning the man accused of trying to murder Berman in her own home is walking free on cashless bail. Bronx prosecutors reportedly sought bail to be set at $1 million, leaving the victim in this case both confused and horrified at how this could happen.
“I kind of froze. I was like, you know, that doesn't make sense,” Berman said of Judge Goldberg’s decision to release her alleged would-be killer, adding, “There's no way that you just almost killed me and only did nine months.”
Joseph, who is facing 25 years in prison for attempted murder alongside a dozen other offenses cited in the indictment, is due back in court on January 16th.
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