The out-of-control suspect who prosecutors said Thursday confessed to beating a stranger to death in a Brooklyn subway station and “taking his spirit” has been arrested more than 30 times since he was 14 but spun through the revolving door of the city’s criminal justice system with very few repercussions and no state prison time, the Daily News has learned.
David Mazariegos, facing murder charges in the Oct. 7 brutal beating death of 64-year-old Nicola Tanzi inside the Jay St.-MetroTech subway station, was remanded after a brief court appearance. Mazariegos confessed to the killing after his arrest and admitted to using one of Tanzi’s credit cards to buy a 20-inch katana sword that cops found him with when they busted him in Times Square.
“He confessed to beating the victim, robbing him and to taking his spirit, as he put it,” Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Sapna Kishnani said.
The attacker’s attorney, Zwi Wasserstein, said he would apply for bail at a later court hearing and declined to talk to reporters after the brief arraignment proceeding. Mazariegos, dressed in a white Tyvek suit, said nothing in court, and kept fidgeting as he stood in front of the judge.
Early in his encounters with the criminal justice system, most of the crimes Mazariegos has been accused of committing over the past decade were misdemeanors for petty larceny and jumping turnstiles. But his crimes ramped up in destructiveness and ferocity in the past few years to include trying to torch a Bronx church sign, destroying other people’s property, and at least one assault before Tuesday’s murder.
At least one of the cases against him — a petty larceny charge in 2019 — was dismissed for mental fitness reasons, Brooklyn prosecutors said. During two of Mazariegos’ more recent crimes, he lashed out against the people around him, accusing them of being “scared of the government,” according to court papers.
When he tried to set a fire at a Bronx church in 2019, he told police, “I hate churches, hospitals and police!”
“These systems oppress people,” he claimed.
His explosion of violence this week was, he told cops, sparked by a look. When he was apprehended in Times Square with a 20-inch katana sword on his lap hours later, Mazariegos said he attacked Tanzi because he didn’t like the way the Tanzi looked at him as the victim held open a subway gate for him, police sources with knowledge of the case said.
He told detectives he didn’t need anyone’s help opening the gate and believed the guard was laughing at him, the sources said.
Mazariegos then brutally beat and kicked Tanzi in the head about 10 times during the completely unprovoked attack, Kishnani said.
“The defendant suddenly and without provocation punched the victim in the face, causing him to then fall to the ground,” Kishani explained. “He then proceeded to stomp on the victim, not once, not twice, but over and over again, even while the victim’s body was totally limp.”
Mazariegos “continued to stomp on his body,” even after Tanzi fell unconscious. He then rifled through the older man’s pockets and took his credit cards.
Despite his bizarre antics and random attacks, the murder suspect was never considered emotionally disturbed by the NYPD, nor were there any incidents when cops were called to calm any emotional outbursts at his home, officials said.
Police said Mazariegos, who lives in the Bronx, was first arrested at 14 when cops busted him on a criminal mischief charge in 2014.
More than half of his arrests have been sealed, but included crimes that involved jumping turnstiles and shoplifting, officials said. Five of his arrests were felonies, officials said.
His crimes also occurred in spurts, cops said. As a young teen, he was arrested repeatedly between 2014 and 2016, but then he wouldn’t appear on the NYPD’s radar again until 2018.
In 2019, he was arrested 10 times in Manhattan and the Bronx, mostly for fare evasion, criminal mischief and petty larceny, cops said.
On March 29 of that year, he was caught slipping through the turnstiles at the 174th St. No. 2 train station, according to court papers. He immediately pleaded guilty and received a conditional discharge, prosecutors said.
That same year, on July 21, he was arrested on arson charges when he tried to set fire to a sign outside of the Universal Church on Boston Road in Crotona Park East.
He was accused of setting his own T-shirt on fire and placing the burning shirt into the sign, causing it to burn, prosecutors said at the time.
He pleaded guilty to the crime a few weeks later and again received a conditional discharge, according to court records.
After 2019, he laid low for about five years before resurfacing on Jan. 6 this year — his first of 10 more arrests until this week’s murder.
Mazariegos’ crimes this year again included fare evasion, but his activities escalated. On June 21 on a No. 2 train in the Bronx, he was caught scrawling “You all N—– scared of the government” on a door with a blue permanent marker.
Then, on July 24, cops arrested him jumping up and down on a woman’s 2013 Nissan Armada at the corner of Mapes and Tremont Aves., shattering the woman’s windshield. It was not immediately clear if Mazariegos knew the owner of the vehicle.
As he jumped up and down on the car’s roof and windshield, he was heard screaming, “Come get me! Y’all afraid of the government!” prosecutors said.
He was released on his own recognizance at his arraignment, and the case against him is pending, Bronx prosecutors said.
In Manhattan, he was given a summons for riding between subway train cars on Sept. 16. Ten days later, he was arrested on petty larceny charges when he snaked his hand inside a tip jar at a deli on Columbus Ave. near W. 60th St., according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
When he was caught, he said he rifled the tip jar “because he didn’t have any money,” Manhattan prosecutors said.
His most violent act before the murder was on June 24 when he punched a 66-year-old man at a movie theater in Chelsea, records show. Cops in Manhattan arrested him on July 2.
The assault case against Mazariegos is pending, prosecutors said. Mazariegos’ public defender in his Manhattan cases could not immediately be reached for comment.
Mazariegos had pleaded guilty to his minor crimes repeatedly, but never did any time in state prison, the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision confirmed.
It was unclear what Mazariegos was doing during the years when he wasn’t on the NYPD’s radar.
His relatives at the court proceeding declined to speak to reporters.
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