These Damn Machines!
By: Tommy “Tj” Sotomayor

A woman charged with manslaughter for stabbing a straphanger to death as they brawled inside a Brooklyn subway station was acting in self-defense, her lawyer claimed Wednesday.

Mia Simmons, 20, got into a fight with victim Latanya Watson on a Manhattan-bound No. 3 train about 9:45 p.m. Monday.

Both women got off at the Sutter Ave. station in Brownsville, where the showdown escalated in the mezzanine after the victim pepper sprayed Simmons as they walked through the turnstile, cops said.

The brawl ended with 30-year-old Watson fatally stabbed. But the suspect’s attorney, Guy Oksenhendler, claims his client, a home health aide, was actually fighting for her life — and only got the upper hand after she wrestled the knife away from the victim.PAID POSTWhat Is This?

“My client is simply trying to defend herself,” Oksenhendler told the Daily News.[More New York] Man charged with murder in Bronx fight between friends that turned deadly »

Simmons was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court for manslaughter and weapon possession Wednesday. Prosecutors said she knifed Watson repeatedly in the face, neck and arm.

“There is a video that makes clear that the decedent is the initial aggressor and attacked my client,” Oksenhendler said in court.

Video obtained by The Daily News shows Simmons, talking on her cellphone, ambushed from behind and hit several times before she begins swinging a knife, grasped in her right hand, at Watson. But it is unclear from the video who originally had the blade.[More New York] Justice for Charlie — Her dad’s accused killer is behind bars »

A mortally wounded Watson, heavily bleeding, continued to wrestle with Simmons, pulling her hair and holding her arm until losing steam. Watson died a short time later at Brookdale University Hospital.

Simmons somehow suffered a cut during the clash. A thick bandage covered her left arm when she appeared before a judge.

“At some point in the video you can see how my client puts her hand up to defend herself, which is apparently where she got that several-inch-long gash on her hand,” Oksenhendler told The News.[More New York] Two men sought for beating 74-year-old man in Upper West Side restaurant »

“As she’s attacking my client, you can see my client continually moving away and moving away,” Oksenhendler added. “The decedent does not stop pursuing and hitting my client. She’s pulling her hair, she’s punching her in the face.”

Oksenhendler asked Judge Hilary Gingold to release Simmons without bail, noting she has no arrest history. Gingold instead ordered her held without bail.

Simmons’ parents, who were in the courtroom, declined to comment after the hearing.[More New York] Cops nab gunman they say fired shots into crowded Bronx playground, wounding two »

Watson was on her way home from her job at the Fairway Market in Red Hook when she got into the fight with her killer.

Watson lived with her fiancé and 12-year-old son two blocks from the station where she was stabbed.

“I waited for her a couple of hours. She didn’t show. I texted her, ‘Are you OK?’ No answer,” Watson’s fiancé, Jerelle Martin, told CBS2. “She was the most beautiful woman I ever met in this world.”[More New York] Cops nab gunman they say fired shots into crowded Bronx playground, wounding two »

Authorities are still unclear on if the two women knew each other and what their fight was about.

The blood trail from the gruesome scene led police to the suspect’s grandmother’s home, where they were told Simmons was at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, sources said. Cops caught up with her there.