A speaker at the Republican National Convention who slammed the handling of her son’s killers’ Manhattan cases provoked the biggest boos of the night when she said District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s name.
But her account left out key elements of what actually happened, a Daily News analysis has found.
Madeline Brame took the podium as one of the keynote speakers at the RNC’s “Make America Safe Again” night, which included addresses by former GOP candidates Nikki Haley, Marco Rubio, and Ron DeSantis.
Brame’s son, Army Sgt. Hason Correa, who served as a mortar man in Afghanistan, was stabbed and fatally beaten to death in the lobby of a W. 152nd St. apartment complex in Harlem in October 2018, according to court documents.
Four people were arrested, charged, and convicted in the 35-year-old Correa’s killing, which happened four years before Bragg took office. But in the speech decrying the prosecutor who tried Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush money case, Brame incorrectly claimed her son’s killers were let off the hook.
“The four assailants responsible for his death initially were facing justice but that changed when District Attorney Alvin Bragg was elected,” Brame said, prompting a roar from the crowd and applause from the ex-president.
“Suddenly, two of the homicidal maniacs responsible for my son’s death had their gang assault and murder charges completely dismissed. I later learned Alvin Bragg often dismisses and reduces dangerous criminals. He wants to clear the jails and return dangerous (felons) to our streets every day.”
James Saunders, the knifeman, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and gang assault in October 2022 and received 20 years to life in prison in February 2023, according to records in the case. A jury convicted Christopher Saunders of gang assault in November 2022, and he also received 20 years to life when he was sentenced the following December. The Saunders men spent a year on the lam before their arrests.
Travis Stewart pleaded guilty to attempted gang assault in May 2022 and was sentenced to seven years in prison the following month.
Mary Saunders, who surrendered the morning after the incident, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault in May 2022 and spent 14 months in jail. Her involvement came after she discovered a friend had been beaten with a glass bottle by Correa and his father, Wesley Correa, court records show.
After tending to the friend’s wounds, Saunders walked back to her building, where Correa and his father confronted her, her siblings and Stewart, and a fight ensued. Prosecutors in 2022 said they found no evidence she knew her brother was carrying a knife during the skirmish or that she intended for the late sergeant to die.
Prosecutors acknowledged Brame was unhappy with the outcome of Mary Saunders’ case, advising the court in a May 2022 court filing that “We attempted to explain the reasons and to show Ms. Brame the video compilation of the incident,” and assured her the murder cases would proceed against Saunders’ brothers.
Angus Mordant / for New York Daily News Mary Saunders is arraigned at Manhattan Criminal Court for her alleged involvement in the stabbing murder of Hason Correa. (Angus Mordant for New York Daily News)
Brame, the chair of the Victims Rights Reform Council who has launched several unsuccessful bids for office, is among a small group of relatives of crime victims Republicans have repeatedly spotlighted in ongoing efforts to discredit the Democrats as “soft on crime.” They called her to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in April and at staunch Trump ally Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan’s circus-like field hearing into Bragg’s crime policies following Trump’s indictment in the summer of 2023.
New York pols came to the DA’s defense following Brame’s speech, with Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal writing that Bragg’s name got the biggest boos because he’s “the only prosecutor thus far who’s been able to hold Trump accountable for his crimes.”
“I have profound sympathy for grieving family members. I can only imagine the pain they are experiencing. We certainly have more work to do to make Manhattan safer. But some facts: Thankfully major index crimes here are down 10% over past two years. Shootings down 38%,” Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine wrote on “X,” formerly known as Twitter.
“Murders per capita are lower in Manhattan and NYC than almost every red state in the nation. By 2x in many cases. And for the record, all the people involved in the heinous murder of Sgt. Hason Correa were thankfully convicted at trial or pleaded guilty to felony charges.”
The DA has featured as one of Trump’s primary online targets. The Daily News exclusively reported last month that the Bragg had been deluged with a surge of death threats and racist hate mail in the wake of the historic conviction.
The ex-president was found guilty on May 30 of 34 felonies brought by Bragg’s office, with a jury finding he falsified business records to disguise a scheme to hide unflattering information about his past from voters. He is set to be sentenced on Sept. 18 if his pending effort to get the conviction thrown out fails.
A spokesperson for Bragg declined to comment.
Originally Published:
