Trial opens for man charged in subway shove

It was a nightmare scenario for a subway rider: a stranger abruptly propelling a woman into the side of an oncoming train.

Prosecutors told jurors Tuesday that the episode was a senseless crime, fueled by defendant Jose Rojas' intoxication and perhaps by his ill will toward others on the subway platform. But defense lawyers said it was an accident.

Rojas, 26, faces attempted murder and other charges. The woman, Ute Linhart, suffered broken ribs, a punctured lung, a broken eye socket and other injuries.

The case is "about a woman being pushed into a subway car for no reason by a total stranger," Manhattan Assistant District Attorney David Drucker told jurors. "It was as random and as pointless as that."

After getting off work cooking at a downtown Manhattan restaurant on Aug. 11, 2010, Rojas downed 4 1/2 beers in about two hours while watching a soccer match involving a team from his native Mexico, Drucker said in an opening statement.

Rojas then caught a northbound R train with a friend to head home to Queens but decided to get off along the way, at the line's 28th Street station in Manhattan, Drucker said.

Though Rojas initially said he planned to take a cab, he lingered instead on the uptown-bound platform, where he cursed at and made threatening gestures toward a couple for no apparent reason, the prosecutor said.

Linhart, meanwhile, arrived on the platform around 7:30 p.m. after finishing a day of work at her job as creative director of a company that designs T-shirts and other merchandise for musicians.

As a train barreled into the station, Rojas came up behind her and pushed her forcefully into its path, using both hands, Drucker said.

"He's not a crazed psychopath. He was drunk," Drucker said.

Linhart slammed into the side of the first car.

Linhart, who is in her early 40s and was born in Germany, underwent months of rehabilitation and will never fully recover, prosecutors said.

After the attack, bystanders stopped Rojas from running away, and he told them: "I don't know why I pushed her," according to a court complaint.

If convicted, Rojas could face up to 25 years in prison.