A teary-eyed CVS employee who fatally stabbed an unhinged serial shoplifter inside a Midtown retailer testified Wednesday that he used a knife to “jab” the crazed man who “beat the s–t” out of him when going fist-to-fist — describing the bloody encounter as an act of self-defense.
Scott Enoe, 48, advised jurors throughout his manslaughter trial in Manhattan that he used a small folding knife to “jab” Charles Brito, a 50-year-old homeless man, to defend his two feminine coworkers from the “loopy” thief contained in the Instances Sq. retailer in July 2023.
“He simply beat the s–t out of me, I couldn’t battle this man with my naked palms,” the Grenada-born man recounted in Manhattan Supreme Court docket.
“I believe he might harm them. This man was loopy. I knew he might harm them actually unhealthy.”
The previous CVS shelf stocker mentioned he was restocking drinks in a cooler when Brito, a recognized shoplifter at space drugstores, ambushed him from behind, threw a flurry of punches, and slammed his head towards the refrigerated unit.
Enoe, who described being overpowered by Brito in the course of the preliminary brawl, advised jurors he jumped into motion and pulled the unarmed homeless man away from his feminine coworkers after he approached them and “began to carry his elbows.”
The confrontation prompted Brito to repeatedly “lunge” at him, Enoe testified.
“He wished to harm me once more. I gave him a jab. To get him off of me,” the previous CVS employee mentioned of the stabbing, including that he didn’t understand how badly Brito was harm.
When requested if he heard Brito say “ouch,” Enoe replied “no.”
He later walked again his unique assertion to police – that he had stabbed the homeless man as an act of revenge for punching him – following the deadly incident, claiming he wasn’t “pondering straight.”
“Sure, I mentioned that to him however I wasn’t pondering,” he pressured, when pressed by Assistant District Legal professional Julia Noble.
“I wasn’t pondering straight, I simply acquired beat up. It was years in the past.”
Prosecutors mentioned Enoe used the small folding knife and stabbed Brito eight occasions – piercing his liver twice – earlier than the bloody thief staggered onto the sidewalk and later died.
His co-workers, Katrina Rivera and Allandrea Hoollness, took the stand this week and testified that the power thief had burst via the doorways of the Broadway and West forty ninth Road retailer and unleashed a collection of menacing threats earlier than attacking Enoe.
“I can kill y’all, I can kill all people,” Brito shouted, Rivera, then-CVS supervisor, advised the jury.
“He’s simply principally saying he might do no matter he needs.”
Brito later made extra scary threats in one other space of the shop, the place two feminine staff tried to cease him from opening one other cooler, Rivera advised the courtroom.
The ordinary shoplifter was “aggressive” when he confronted the 2 employees, swinging his elbows – although by no means placing both – when a bruised and bleeding Enoe walked again as much as him, each ladies testified.
“I simply noticed Scotty principally pull him off,” Holiness mentioned.
“I noticed them combating, and the following factor I knew the shoplifter was screaming he’s bleeding, acquired stabbed. I noticed the blood.”
Jurors noticed images of Enoe’s swollen eye and busted lip he suffered in the course of the battle and an image of the bloodied knife used within the scuffle.
Enoe, who’s out on $100,000 bail, was charged with manslaughter for the deadly knifing.
Manhattan jurors — who’re set to begin deliberations by the top of the week — can acquit him in the event that they discover that he acted “moderately,” both to guard himself or to guard Hollness and Rivera.
Enoe faces as much as 25 years in jail if convicted.
