Man behind ‘horrendous’ attack at Queens train station hit with max sentence

Nina Rothschild, who was attacked by William Blount in a Queens subway station in 2022, speaks with reporters alongside Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz after Blount was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison on Thursday, July 10, 2025. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye

By Jacob Kaye

For nearly 10 years, Queens Supreme Court Justice John Zoll has sentenced countless defendants from the criminal court bench. But to his recollection, he’s never given a defendant a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

That changed Thursday.

Zoll said that the “horrendous” details of the attack carried out by 60-year-old Wiliam Blount, who struck a health department with a hammer in her head over a dozen times in the Queens Plaza subway station in 2022, led him to issue his first sentence of 25 years to life.

“I’ve seen a lot of brutal things,” Zoll said from the bench before sentencing Blount on Thursday. “This certainly rises to the top.”

Blount, who was convicted of assault, robbery and weapons charges in April, will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars, which may come as a comfort to his victim, Nina Rothschild, who spoke at Thursday’s sentencing hearing.

“Please make sure he never sees the light of day outside of the walls of a prison,” Rothschild asked the judge.

After Blount was sentenced, Rothschild, who is also 60 years old, said she was “very glad to be able to put this behind me and move on with the next phase of my life.”

Rothschild said that she was tired after a long day of work on Feb. 24, 2022 at the city’s Health Department building in Long Island City when Blount approached her from behind while she was walking down the stairs of the Queens Plaza subway station.

Carrying a cane and a hammer, Blount was caught on surveillance video kicking Rothschild down the stairs before hitting her 13 times in the head with the hammer.

At the conclusion of the beating, Blount grabbed the city worker’s tote bag and fled.

During Blount’s sentencing hearing on Thursday, Rothschild rhetorically asked Blount about his reasoning behind the attack.

“Why on earth would you have come up behind me, fractured my skull multiple times with a hammer and then grab my bag?” she told Blount.“I am not a lawyer, but I am quite certain you would have faced a lesser punishment if you had simply robbed me.”

Rothschild, who told members of the media after the hearing that she continues to think about the attack at least once a day, also asked Blount to explain the randomness behind his choice of victim.

“Why me?” she said. “What did I ever do to you?”

Throughout the hearing, the judge, prosecutors and the defense praised Rothschild for her composure while testifying against Blount.

Zoll said that it was “very hard to remain impartial when someone like you testifies.”

“I’ve never seen someone who was as forthright, honest, with such a sense of decency,” Zoll said. “The fact you stayed that way after this attack is a miracle.”

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, who watched Thursday’s proceeding from the gallery of the Queens courtroom, thanked Rothschild for her “bravery.”

Even Blount allegedly had praise for Rothschild. During the sentencing hearing, Blount’s attorney, Garnett Sullivan, recounted a moment during the trial when Rothschild was testifying. According to Sullivan, the defendant turned to him during her testimony and said, “She’s such a nice lady.”

But Rothschild, who called Blount a “violent predator," didn’t return the kind words to her attacker, who has maintained his innocence and did not look at his victim during her remarks on Thursday.

“I don’t believe he can be rehabilitated,” Rothschild said.

Blount has an extensive criminal history which contributed to the lengthy prison sentence ordered by Zoll on Thursday.

The 60-year-old was convicted of an attempted robbery in Queens in 1984. A decade later, he was convicted of a robbery.

In 2000, not long after being released from prison on the previous robbery conviction, Blount was arrested for kidnapping several employees of a Bojangles fast food restaurant in South Carolina and forcing them to open the eatery’s safe. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and released in 2018, four years before he attacked Rothschild.

“As soon as he gets out of jail, he goes and does it again,” said prosecutor Lauren Reilly. “He’s not going to stop, he’s not going to learn. He’s going to do it again.”

Blount’s attorney said the defendant plans to appeal both his conviction and his sentencing.

Katz called Thursday’s sentencing a win for New Yorkers who were spooked by the attack in the city’s subway system.

“What really floors me about this case is the randomness,” Katz said. “It could have been anyone.”

“[This sentencing] makes sure that people know that there is a deterrent, that if you attack people in the subway, if you ruin our way of life, if you attack the safety that every New Yorker should feel while traveling on public transportation in the city of New York, you will be held accountable,” the DA added.

Since the attack, Rothschild said she has made a full physical recovery but the fear of the evening attack has stayed with her.

While she continues to take the subway to work in the morning, at night, she takes the bus.