Drunken Claim Denied in Stabbing Retrial

Two New York police officers rebutted claims by a black man that he was drunk the night he allegedly stabbed a rabbinical student to death during the 1991 Crown Heights riots. “He wasn’t intoxicated,” Lt. Richard Sanossian testified at the retrial of 27-year-old Lemrick Nelson in federal court. Another officer also said Nelson was sober. The testimony came after Nelson’s new lawyer -- in a shift from two previous trials -- did not deny Nelson stabbed Yankel Rosenbaum. The lawyer says Nelson, then 16, was swept up in an angry mob after drinking beer. The attorney insists the killing had nothing to do with the victim’s religion, the basis of the civil rights case.