Photo Credit: CBS-NY 2 News live coverage screen grab
Grafton Thomas, suspected of carrying out a Hanukkah machete attack that wounded five Jews in Monsey during a Saturday night Chanukah Melaveh Malka meal Dec. 28, 2019, was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday on five additional hate crime charges.
Read: Monsey Machete Attack Suspect Grafton E. Thomas Indicted in Rockland County
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Federal prosecutors are charging Thomas, 37, with targeting his victims at the Monsey home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg because they were Jewish.
With the new charges, Thomas is facing 10 federal hate crime counts, according to federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York. Each count carries a potential life sentence.
Grafton was already charged with five counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs involving an attempt to kill. He was indicted on Thursday on those charges, with five additional hate crime counts of willfully causing bodily injury because of his victims’ faith.
One of Grafton’s victims, Josef Neumann, 70, has not regained consciousness after suffering a skull fracture in the attack. He remains in dire condition.
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