NYC bodega worker Jose Alba freed on murder rap after bail is lowered in self-defense case

By Edward Era Barbacena

The hard-working Manhattan bodega worker languishing on Rikers Island on a murder charge after fending off a violent ex-con was sprung from jail Thursday after a judge agreed to lower his sky-high bail.

The plight of dad-of-three Jose Alba — detailed in a front-page Post story Thursday — was eased after his family was able to post the reduced bond with the help of his boss following a hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court.

“He has every intention to return to court and defend this case,” Alba’s attorney, Danielle Jackson of Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, said in court.

Alba, 61, was sent to Rikers Island on a whopping $250,000 bail — half of what prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office had requested at his arraignment Saturday night, claiming the worker was a flight risk because of a planned trip to the Dominican Republic next week.

Under state law, Alba would have had to be released Thursday as prosecutors had not yet presented the second-degree murder case to the grand jury — but they could delay the presentation if he was free on bail.

During Thursday’s hearing, prosecutors said they had negotiated a new bail package with Alba’s lawyer and asked Judge Jonathan Svetkey to reduce the amount to $50,000.

“I don’t think a grand jury would indict him for murder in the second degree, and I don’t think a jury would convict him beyond a reasonable doubt given what the justification statute states,” he added, referring to a self-defense claim.

Alba was manning the counter at Hamilton Heights Grocery on Broadway and West 139th Street Friday night when Austin Simon, a 35-year-old career criminal on parole for assaulting a police officer, stormed behind the counter and shoved him into a wall, surveillance video shows.

The ex-con then grabbed Alba as the frightened clerk tried to get past him — getting his hands on a knife and plunging it into Simon at least five times.

During the fight, Simon’s girlfriend allegedly pulled a knife from her purse and stabbed Alba three times in the shoulder and hand, according to his attorney.

She has not been charged, with the DA’s office saying only “we are continuing to review the evidence and the investigation is ongoing.”

The video showed Alba, bloodied and still holding the knife, waiting for police to arrive — only to find himself hauled into custody on murder and criminal possession of a weapon charges.

“He’s not used to this behavior,” son Jeffrey Alba, 27, had told The Post on Wednesday. “He’s not used to this type of aggression. At the moment he was in fear for his life.”

More than 20 relatives and supporters packed the courtroom Thursday for the video-feed court hearing in support of the beleaguered bodega worker. The family declined to comment after the proceedings.

Simon’s family, meanwhile, stormed out of court in tears, with his sister saying, that he “was murdered in cold blood.”

“If the shoe was on the other foot, my brother wouldn’t have gotten bail or bond or nothing,” she said.

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.

Alba is due back in court on July 20 after the grand jury convenes.

The extraordinary case has garnered even more criticism of Bragg — who’s earned a reputation as a soft-on-crime prosecutor, including for downgrading certain felonies, since taking office in January.

“Jose Alba should be getting a Congressional Medal of Honor,” Guardian Angels founder and former mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa said outside the courtroom Thursday. “Instead, he’s locked up on Rikers and this is all Alvin Bragg. He turns loose real criminals and he incarcerates victims who fight back. What kind of a message is this?”

Police said Simon’s beef with Alba stemmed from an earlier encounter between the bodega worker and Simon’s 32-year-old girlfriend.

Alba’s lawyer and his children said the native of the Dominican Republic came to the US 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.