A wannabe-mugger with a laundry list of prior convictions was thrown in jail ahead of his trial for allegedly shoving a 91-year-old cancer patient to the ground earlier this month during an attempted robbery in Yorkville.
Christian Torres, 45, of East 21st Street in Brooklyn, was arrested Sunday and charged at his Tuesday arraignment with assault and two counts of attempted robbery for the Feb. 1 attack, which has left his elderly victim bound to a hospital bed.
Torres — who has 49 prior convictions for a variety of misdemeanors and six felonies — was remanded on $150,000 cash or $250,000 insurance bond/bond partially secured bond, according to the complaint.
He’s scheduled to return to New York Criminal Court on Feb. 16.
Meanwhile, his victim is still trying to make sense of the attempted wallet-snatching that’s left him with six bone fractures, broken ribs, a liver hematoma and another fracture at the base of his spine.
“He sees he has an easy target, he takes advantage of me,” Hyman Silverglad, a retired lawyer, told The Post this week from the Amsterdam Rehabilitation Home Center.
“The pain has lessened because they have given me strong painkillers,” he continued. “I have no quality of life, and I was told it will take months and months to heal.”
Silverglad was walking with his groceries on East 86th Street and 1st Avenue at about 10 p.m. the night he was attacked, the complaint said.
Silverglad saw a man wearing a black jacket reach towards his pocket and try to grab his wallet in front of 250 East 86th Street — then he shoved Silverglad to the ground and began punching him, it said.
Eventually, Torres took off when the nonagenarian began yelling, cops said.
Torres is a frequent flyer in the city’s legal system, police sources said.
He has had 19 failure-to-appear warrants, five previous parole revocations and two violent felony convictions on his rap sheet, sources said.
But Silverglad — who told The Post earlier that he is also battling cancer and kidney failure — remained defiant despite the grievous injuries.
“I cough, and I’m almost dead,” he said during a bedside interview. “I tell you if I was young, I would run after this mother-freaker and beat the shoot out of him and kick his ass and he’ll forget being a criminal.”
The attack has made the man consider leaving the Big Apple for good.
“New York City has morphed into a jungle,” he said. “Since my assault, I’m thinking of moving from New York City to a safe place … No person over 65 is safe in this city.”
