Suspect in boy's stabbing to seek lower bail

The attorney for Evan Sachs, the 23-year-old Merrick man who police said stabbed an 8-year-old boy five times in the back during an attack at Dave & Buster's in Westbury, will argue in court Tuesday that his client's bail should be lowered from $1 million to a "reasonable" amount.

Michael Soshnick of Mineola is due to argue on his client's behalf at the state appellate division in Brooklyn that the $2.5-million bond or $1-million cash bail should be pared down to about a $150,000 bond or $75,000 cash, which would be more in line with what Sachs' family can afford to pay.

Soshnick argues in an application he filed last Wednesday that his client has a serious mental illness and may be in danger of killing himself at the Nassau County jail, citing several suicides by inmates housed there over the past year.

Sachs was indicted on charges of second-degree attempted murder, first- and second-degree assault, and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison.

The boy had a punctured lung but has been released from the hospital.

In the application, Soshnick wrote, "The parents want their son released from jail not because they want him to come home, but because they want him transferred to a mental hospital where he would receive meaningful and required treatment."

Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice declined to comment on the lower bail request.

Nassau County Court Judge Jerald S. Carter set the bail on Jan. 19. Carter said his role was to make sure that Sachs shows up in court to face the charges, not to determine what is best for Sachs.

Prosecutors said Sachs walked up to the 8-year-old boy in the Dave & Buster's in Westbury on Oct. 8 and stabbed him five times in the back. When Sachs was arrested, police said, he was carrying a note that said he had planned an attack.