Man Is Guilty of Pushing Woman Into Path of Train

NEW YORK —  A schizophrenic was convicted of murder Wednesday after his second trial for shoving a woman to her death in front of a subway train.

Andrew Goldstein faces 25 years to life in prison when he is sentenced in April for the second-degree murder of Kendra Ann Webdale. It is considered likely that he will serve the sentence in a state prison that can give him psychiatric care.

Goldstein’s first trial ended in a mistrial when the jury deadlocked.

He showed no emotion after the verdict was read Wednesday, but members of Webdale’s family wept and hugged each other.

“It’s been such a nightmare that I wouldn’t want to use the word ‘happy,’ but I feel like jumping for joy,” said her mother, Patricia Webdale.

“I have no comment,” Goldstein’s attorney, Kevin Canfield, said as he left the courtroom.

Goldstein, 30, was charged with murder in the Jan. 3, 1999, death of Webdale, 32, who had aspired to a career in the recording industry.

Webdale, whose hometown was Buffalo, N.Y., was killed less than three weeks after Goldstein was released from a hospital where he had voluntarily sought treatment.

Canfield admitted that Goldstein pushed Webdale in front of an oncoming train at the 23rd Street-Broadway station but said he did it because he is mentally ill.

But Assistant Dist. Atty. William Greenbaum argued that it was revenge, not mental illness, that drove Goldstein. Because he was rebuffed by one blond woman on the platform, he targeted Webdale to get even, Greenbaum said.

Because Goldstein attacked Webdale while refusing to take his antipsychotic medicine, the case led to a law last year that allows violent mental patients to receive medication by force. It is called “Kendra’s Law.”