Cops Go Back to Bouncer's Home
Searching for Evidence in Slaying of St. Guillen
March 10, 2006 — - Police have returned to the home of a bouncer they are calling a "person of interest" in the killing of Imette St. Guillen. They are looking for evidence to link him to the graduate student who was last seen at the bar where he worked before her body was found dumped in a vacant lot.
Searching for Evidence in Slaying of St. Guillen
March 10, 2006 — - Police have returned to the home of a bouncer they are calling a "person of interest" in the killing of Imette St. Guillen. They are looking for evidence to link him to the graduate student who was last seen at the bar where he worked before her body was found dumped in a vacant lot.
Police sources told ABC News that investigators were tearing out plumbing in Darryl Littlejohn's home.
The new search of Littlejohn's home came hours after he had told a New York court that he was not guilty of the brutal slaying of St. Guillen or a string of other sex crimes, and that he was eager to stand for a police lineup.The court granted his wish and the burly bouncer appeared in the second of two police lineups to determine whether authorities could link him to a set of 2005 sex attacks in Queens, N.Y.
The victims' inability to pick Littlejohn out of the two six-person lineups dealt a blow to investigators' hypothesis that the 41-year-old bouncer might be responsible for a string of violent sex crimes in the area, as well as the slaying of St. Guillen 12 days ago.
The first Queens victim, a woman who was raped and sodomized, did not identify Littlejohn in a lineup Monday at the 75th Police Precinct. The second victim, who jumped from the rapist's van and escaped before she was assaulted, didn't identify Littlejohn in a Queens lineup on Thursday.
Littlejohn is the sole "person of interest" in the sexually motivated killing of St. Guillen, a 24-year-old graduate student. The case has become fodder for two weeks of tabloid headlines and talk shows around the nation.
St. Guillen was found in a remote section of Brooklyn, with her body bound and her head wrapped in packing tape. Her body was clean of any apparent forensic evidence. In three other recent rape and sex abuse cases, the victims had been similarly bound, taped and wiped down or showered off after their attacks, police and prosecutors said. At least one victim told authorities she had been abducted in a van similar in appearance to Littlejohn's.
The victims' inability to pick Littlejohn out of the two six-person lineups dealt a blow to investigators' hypothesis that the 41-year-old bouncer might be responsible for a string of violent sex crimes in the area, as well as the slaying of St. Guillen 12 days ago.
The first Queens victim, a woman who was raped and sodomized, did not identify Littlejohn in a lineup Monday at the 75th Police Precinct. The second victim, who jumped from the rapist's van and escaped before she was assaulted, didn't identify Littlejohn in a Queens lineup on Thursday.
Sole 'Person of Interest'
Littlejohn is the sole "person of interest" in the sexually motivated killing of St. Guillen, a 24-year-old graduate student. The case has become fodder for two weeks of tabloid headlines and talk shows around the nation.
St. Guillen was found in a remote section of Brooklyn, with her body bound and her head wrapped in packing tape. Her body was clean of any apparent forensic evidence. In three other recent rape and sex abuse cases, the victims had been similarly bound, taped and wiped down or showered off after their attacks, police and prosecutors said. At least one victim told authorities she had been abducted in a van similar in appearance to Littlejohn's.
Police requested Littlejohn for the lineup after a woman who had been assaulted in October 2005 picked him from a police photo collection. Though Littlejohn's photo was shown to victims as part of a photo array shortly after at least one of the rapes, no victim picked him out as the attacker at the time, a senior criminal justice official said. On Thursday, a victim again did not identify him.
During a brief court appearance Thursday, Littlejohn stood with downcast eyes as his court-appointed lawyer, Kevin O'Donnell, said his client was innocent of the killing. Littlejohn wore jeans and a gray sweat shirt before Acting Supreme Court Justice John B. Latella Jr. Littlejohn was bull-rushed into the court, hands cuffed behind his back, his head pressed down with a coat over it.
Roadblocks to Murder Charges Slim circumstantial evidence links him to St. Guillen's death, and detectives have been repeatedly frustrated in their efforts to build a case that will withstand the scrutiny of a prosecutor.
Cell phone records place Littlejohn in the area of the lot where St. Guillen was found around the time a 911 caller reported coming across the young woman's corpse. Witnesses and cell phone records also place Littlejohn, a bouncer at The Falls, a bar in New York's SoHo neighborhood, at the Falls just before St. Guillen left there on the night she was killed.
However, that evidence alone is insufficient to bring charges against Littlejohn, authorities said. Fibers found at the crime scene matched Littlejohn's carpet, but the carpet is extremely common. St. Guillen's body was remarkably clean of clues.
Further DNA test results on fingernail scrapings may still yield strong evidence. DNA samples from bodily fluids found on the floral bedspread in which St. Guillen's body was wrapped were also inconclusive.
One official said they might further complicate matters, as they may be from a person other than St. Guillen or Littlejohn. So far, Littlejohn's DNA has not been linked to the victim, according to police and the New York City Medical Examiner's office said.
Senior police officials said they believed it was unlikely that homicide charges would be brought unless more circumstantial or direct evidence was found.
Before Wednesday, when Littlejohn was brought to the New York City jail on a probation violation, Littlejohn had been held in a Brooklyn police station for two days as a "person of interest" in St. Guillen's slaying. When he declined to cooperate, he was sent to Rikers Island jail, where he languished on a parole violation until today's "order to produce" him for court was served on the corrections department.
An Easy Target? Littlejohn's attorney says his client is an easy target for police in the St. Guillen case because of his criminal record. Littlejohn had been convicted of five different crimes ranging from armed robbery to drug possession, but nothing sexual in nature. "He feels that he's a scapegoat," O'Donnell said. "His picture's been all over the paper. It's been all over the media nationally. He's the easiest target right now."
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