Jose Alba, who was being held on $250,000 bail for the Friday night video assault, is set to be released after Manhattan prosecutors asked a judge to lower it to $50,000 — with Alba’s relatives and boss they pay the $5,000 required to put him on bail. Alba’s attorney, Danielle Jackson of the Harlem Neighborhood Advocate Service, assured the judge that her client was not going anywhere. “He has every intention of going back to court and defending this case,” Jackson said. Prosecutors with District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office had initially asked that Alba be held on $500,000 bail at his court appearance Saturday, citing a planned trip to the Dominican Republic next week as evidence that he is a flight risk. But prosecutors said Thursday they began negotiating a lower bail package with Alba’s attorney after the trial. “We believe that surrendering his passport, as well as electronic monitoring and the restriction that he cannot leave the five boroughs, will ensure that the defendant does not go to the DR as he planned,” said Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sigall. he told the court. Prosecutors also postponed presenting the case to a grand jury for indictment until July 20, but would not say whether a murder charge was still on the table. Alba, 61, was manning the counter at the Hamilton Heights grocery store on Broadway when Austin Simon, a 35-year-old career criminal and former con artist, burst in behind the counter and pushed him against a wall, the video shows. Simon then grabs Alba as the frightened employee tries to get past him. Alba then grabs a knife and plunges it into Simon at least five times. Austin Simon has prior arrests, including robbery and assault, and served time in state prison for a 2016 conviction for assaulting a police officer. Simon’s girlfriend then takes a knife out of her bag and stabs Alba three times in the shoulder. Alba, covered in blood and still holding the knife, is seen waiting for the police to arrive – only to be arrested and taken into custody. In court, Manhattan prosecutors charged Alba with second-degree murder but declined to file charges against Simon’s girlfriend in the stabbing of the bodega worker. More than 20 relatives and supporters packed the courtroom for the video hearing to support the embattled bodega worker. Simon’s family, meanwhile, broke down outside the court in tears, with his sister saying he was “murdered in cold blood”. “If the shoe was on the other foot, my brother wouldn’t get bail or bond or anything,” he said. Jose Alba, 51, was manning the counter at the Hamilton Heights grocery store on Broadway. Tina Lee, who said she has three children with Simon, called him a “good man” and a “good father” who took “good” care of all his children. In Alba’s court Saturday, the DA’s office asked for bail at $500,000, but Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Eric Schumacher set bail at $250,000 cash or $500,000 bond. Under bail conditions set Thursday, Alba must wear a monitoring device and remain within the five boroughs while the case is pending — if he posts bail. He is due back in court on July 20 after the grand jury convenes. Bragg, who has earned a reputation as a soft-on-crime prosecutor since taking office in January, decided to play hardball with Alba. Critics are slamming Bragg for his latest legal blunder. “It’s ridiculous,” Guardian Angels founder and former mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa said outside the courtroom Thursday. Alba grabbed a knife and allegedly stabbed Simon at least five times. “Jose Alba should get a Congressional Medal of Honor,” Sliua said. “Instead, he’s locked up in Rikers and he’s all Alvin Bragg. It frees real criminals and imprisons victims who fight back. What kind of message is this? “That’s why I’m here today with the Guardian Angels to make sure that Jose Alba is released and not returned to Rikers Island,” he said. Speaking at a press conference in Brooklyn, Mayor Eric Adams described Alba as an “honest New Yorker who did his job. “My heart goes out to the employee who was in the store doing this work,” Adams said. “And I hope we take all of that into account, as this hard-working New Yorker was doing his job and someone aggressively went behind the counter to attack him.” Police said Simon’s beef with Alba stemmed from an earlier encounter between the bodega worker and Simon’s 32-year-old girlfriend. The woman, whose name is being withheld by The Post, tried to buy a bag of chips for her 10-year-old daughter, but her card was repeatedly declined, according to court documents. Police charged Alba with murder and criminal possession of a weapon. The woman became enraged and stormed off, returning 10 minutes later with Simon. According to a criminal complaint, Simon was demanding an apology from Alba when she attacked and pinned him in the back room – before the incident turned deadly. Police have charged Alba with murder and criminal possession of a weapon, with prosecutors filing murder charges in court and presenting the case to a grand jury. Alba’s attorney and his children said the Dominican Republic native came to the U.S. about 30 years ago and became a citizen 14 years ago. The father of three once owned his own bodega and has been working at the Hamilton Heights grocery store for about three years. “He’s a hard-working man,” his daughter, Yulissa Alba, 34, told The Post Wednesday. “He has never hurt anyone. He never had a fight where he had to defend himself. “He is a good citizen,” he added. Meanwhile, Simon, 35, has prior arrests, including robbery and assault, and served time in state prison for a 2016 conviction for assaulting a police officer. He was released from prison last year and was still on parole when he was killed.
