Christopher Joseph

Introduction

Christopher Joseph is a 23-year-old Bronx man who pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted murder for stabbing Kaitlynn Berman 22 times inside her Wakefield apartment in March 2025 — an attack that left her critically injured while her three-year-old daughter was in the next room — and was sentenced on November 4, 2026 to eight-and-a-half years in prison, a term so light that Berman vomited outside the courthouse upon hearing it and one she placed in brutal arithmetic for the New York Post two days later: “He stabbed me more times than the years he was sentenced for.” Bronx Supreme Court Justice Timothy Lewis also ordered five years of post-release supervision and an order of protection barring Joseph from contacting Berman. Prosecutors had asked for ten years; the defense asked for five; the plea deal Joseph accepted in September produced the middle number.

Background Information

The attack happened in March 2025 at Berman’s apartment on East 225th Street in the Wakefield section of the Bronx. Berman was pet-sitting a friend’s cat when Joseph — that friend’s boyfriend — came to pick up the animal and, by her account to News 12, invited himself inside and said his girlfriend had permitted him to have sex with her; Berman told the Post she found the claim “very weird and uncomfortable.” When she rebuffed his advances, his mood turned. The Bronx District Attorney’s Office charged him with attempted murder and robbery after the attack.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Christopher Joseph admitted the March 2025 knife attack that stabbed Kaitlynn Berman 22 times and slashed her throat, pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted murder in September 2026, and was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison on November 4, 2026 — under the ten years prosecutors sought and far under the 22-years-to-life her advocates demanded, with the judge explaining the number by Joseph’s age and his hope the young man could still change.

The attack itself, according to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, came without warning: Joseph stabbed Berman approximately 22 times in the face, neck, hands and abdomen while her three-year-old daughter was in the next room, then slashed her throat, cut her below the right eye and across the nose, and left her for dead. He stole her cellphone and $5,700 in cash before fleeing; police said the blood-soaked Joseph was apprehended at a nearby subway station shortly after the attack. Berman told CBS New York that Joseph kept stabbing her and told her to stop screaming.

The injuries put Berman in NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi for 48 days, where she underwent three surgeries and two blood transfusions. She was left with permanent nerve damage to her hands and face, along with PTSD, pain and trauma, and an injury burden that NBC New York reported has limited her independence and ability to work. “The woman has PTSD. She has nerve damage on both right hand and left hand, she has pain and trauma from the right side of her face. Her life is never the same,” Berman’s advocate, Bishop Boyde Singletary, said after the sentencing.

The case then took a turn that became its own story: despite the violent allegations, Joseph was released without bail in December 2025 after his lawyer successfully moved for his release, citing court paperwork stating he was “released on his own recognizance” because “an email regarding an outstanding discovery went unanswered.” CBS New York reported he had pleaded not guilty in May 2025, and that a hearing in his case was postponed in mid-2026 due to the Bronx public defenders’ strike. He remained free until his guilty plea.

At Bronx Supreme Court on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, Berman delivered a 15-minute victim impact statement directly to Joseph, who showed little reaction. “You failed to take my life, and you won’t take away my future,” she told him, according to PIX11 and the New York Post. Asked by Justice Lewis whether he wished to speak, Joseph said “No” softly, and refused the opportunity to address the courtroom. Prosecutors with the Bronx DA’s Office requested a ten-year term; Joseph’s defense argued he should get five.

Justice Lewis’s rationale for the eight-and-a-half years, read from the sentencing transcript the Post obtained, leaned on Joseph’s youth and capacity for change: “The sentence of 8.5 years reflects the fact that you’re still a relatively young man,” Lewis told him, adding, “I’m only hopeful that you find a way to become a different person and to do something positive when you get out, to in some way address what you did to Ms. Berman.” The judge said he hoped Joseph would not “become a hardened criminal who ends up spending your life in jail,” noted Joseph may have been “under some sort of drug or narcotic” during the attack and was reportedly “in a gang” at some point, and framed the term as a promise kept: “Having said all of that, it’s an agreed upon promise, and I am sentencing you as promised to eight and a half years of state prison and five years post-release supervision.” Lewis was appointed to the bench by Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2023.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The sentence drew immediate, public outrage. Berman was so overwhelmed on hearing the term that she vomited outside the courthouse; PIX11 described her doubling over at a news conference, saying “Oh my God,” as her advisors led her to a seat. Bishop Boyde Singletary said outside the courthouse: “This man, this monster, Christopher Joseph, should be doing 22 years to life — one year for each stabbing. No remorse, no anything.” Pastor Cheryl Singletary, who co-pastors with him and advises Berman, said: “If we have to appeal this, we will do so, because this is no justice and no peace.”

Two days after the sentencing, Berman took her case directly to the public in a New York Post interview. “It was upsetting, it was heartbreaking, because it was supposed to be 20 to 25 years,” she said. “Eight years is not enough.” She rejected the judge’s second-chance framing in explicitly personal terms: “They said that he’s still young and has time to change his life around. I think it doesn’t matter if you have time to change your life around. I think it matters of what you already did. You need to suffer the consequences.” And she closed with a warning about who Joseph is: “I think it was a very, very light sentence. He needs more than eight and a half years, and people really need to know who he is. People need to know that he’s a monster.” She described daily physical and mental trauma in the year and a half since the attack, and recalled having to crawl to her door to unlock it for a neighbor while not knowing whether her daughter had been harmed.

Berman’s supporters announced plans to challenge the sentence and contact the Bronx District Attorney’s Office; advocates told NBC New York she plans to appeal and in an Instagram post Singletary wrote, in capital letters, “EIGHT YEARS IS NOT THE OUTCOME WE BELIEVE JUSTICE DEMANDS. WE WANT THIS SENTENCE CHALLENGED, REVIEWED, AND RECONSIDERED!” PIX11’s account carried the courtroom detail that Berman read her statement clearly while Joseph showed no reaction, even as she described the attack in graphic detail.

Current Status

Joseph, 23, is a convicted felon serving an eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence for second-degree attempted murder, to be followed by five years of post-release supervision; a standing order of protection bars him from contacting Berman after his release. NBC New York noted he will be about 31 when the prison term ends. The conviction is final at the trial level through his guilty plea; the contested question is the length of the sentence, and Berman has now pressed that case publicly herself, telling the Post the term was “very, very light” and that people “need to know who he is.” Her supporters’ push for the Bronx DA’s office to challenge or reconsider the sentence remains the open thread; no appellate filing by the defense has been reported, and Joseph himself declined to speak at sentencing and has made no public statement.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Joseph enters prison at 23 for an attack he admitted at a plea hearing, with the robbery folded into the same record through the DA’s charging. The eight-and-a-half-year term — the number his own victim says exceeds by fourteen the number of times he stabbed her — means his mid-thirties release is already scheduled, and the order of protection will follow him out. The judge’s transcript now documents, in the court’s own words, that the term was chosen for his youth and rehabilitative prospects over the gravity advocates read in the attack. For Berman, the case’s documented costs are permanent: 48 days hospitalized, three surgeries, two blood transfusions, nerve damage that limits her independence and ability to work, and a recovery she told CBS New York she is still surprised to have survived.

Sources

• New York Post, “NYC mom Kaitlynn Berman vomits as ‘monster’ friend who stabbed her 22 times with young daughter nearby receives light sentence,” November 6, 2026. source
• New York Post, “Young mom stabbed 22 times by ‘monster’ rails against NYC judge for ‘very, very light’ sentence - and jaw-dropping comments to convict,” November 6, 2026. source
• PIX11, “Woman stabbed 22 times faces attacker at sentencing she says was too light,” November 4, 2026. source
• NBC New York, “Victim stabbed 22 times says 8.5-year sentence is not enough,” November 4, 2026. source
• CBS New York, “Suspect in Bronx knife attack was freed due to late paperwork, victim alleges,” August 7, 2026. source