Posted on 03/09/2006 12:57:24 PM PST by Graybeard58
NEW YORK -- He has a criminal career that has spanned more than 20 years and featured colorful aliases, including John Handsome. He once robbed a bank of more than $60,000 -- during a blizzard. A parole board later labeled him a menace to society.
Still, until this week, 41-year-old Darryl Littlejohn was a faceless ex-con getting by as a bouncer. That changed when authorities targeted the parolee in the brutal slaying of a graduate student from Boston who mysteriously vanished after last call at the SoHo bar where he worked.
Littlejohn has not been charged in the murder of Imette St. Guillen, 24, whose naked and bound body was discovered on Feb. 25 dumped along a desolate road in Brooklyn. But in recent days, investigators have grilled him about the case, and spent hours combing the bar, his Queens home and his van for evidence against him.
Littlejohn remained in legal limbo on Wednesday -- held on Rikers Island for a parole violation -- as New Yorkers awoke to find his mug shot plastered across tabloid front pages.
Authorities said they didn't know if he had a lawyer. His aunt, Addie Harris, has tried to defend him publicly, arguing, "Many people have a record, but that doesn't mean he committed that type of crime."
Police officials said on Wednesday they were awaiting the results of forensic testing they believe could solve the crime, but refused to elaborate. As a convicted felon, Littlejohn's DNA would be on file, which would allow authorities to try to match it with DNA from the body or potential crime scenes.
The New York Police Department's top spokesman, Paul Browne, said only that the NYPD was "continuing to examine evidence in connection with this homicide."
St. Guillen, a student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, was raped, strangled and suffocated by someone who stuffed a white sock in her mouth and wrapped her head with packaging tape.
The victim was last seen alive at The Falls bar, where a manager recalled instructing the 5-foot-7, 210-pound Littlejohn to remove the petite patron at the 4 a.m. closing time after she lingered too long over a drink. The witness said he overheard the two arguing before they exited a side door.
Littlejohn shouldn't have been working at the bar because the job kept him out past his 9 p.m. parole curfew. But officials say they only knew about a second job he had at a mortgage company.
Records show the suspect's first brush with the law at age 17, when he robbed someone with a shotgun. Over the years, he was convicted on drug and gun charges using names like Darryl Banks, John Handsome and Jonathan Blaze -- the name of a comic book character.
As Blaze, he held up a Long Island bank with two other men at gunpoint in December 1995 amid a snowstorm.
"It's tough enough in good weather, and you're doing it in a blizzard," one parole commissioner marveled at a 2004 hearing.
Through counseling, Littlejohn said he had learned to "think before reacting to anger." But the board denied his parole, telling him, "Your violent and out-of-control behavior shows you to be a menace to society."
Littlejohn was freed anyway two months later, in July 2004, after serving enough time to qualify for conditional release.
His aunt, Addie Harris, has tried to defend him publicly, arguing, "Many people have a record, but that doesn't mean he committed that type of crime."
I would expect someone in his family to come to his defense, that's reasonable. Walks and talks like a duck, but, there is more than one duck in town. I'm really interested in watching this unfold. There should be some major evidence that would help law enforcement definitively track down the murderer. It will be very interesting.
"Littlejohn shouldn't have been working at the bar because the job kept him out past his 9 p.m. parole curfew. But officials say they only knew about a second job he had at a mortgage company."
I presume this is why he was arrested on parole violation. What a tragic story.
The guy who owned this bar also owned the "Red Hand" which was where the Preppy Murder case took place. He has a real knack for trouble ... and sounds like a jerk.
He is a jerk, he wouldn`t cooperate with the cops, and finally admitted something like two days later he heard the victim and this punk arguing and then he heard a "muffled scream", then saw this punk the next day with scratches on his neck..Can you imagine?
First off, any bar owner with even a smidgen of integrity or brains would have told the bouncer to get her a cab, not "throw her out". I drive a cab in NYC and pick up drunks like this all the time, the bouncer or bartender hails me and I pick up the drunk. Why do they do this? It`s good business and second it protects their azzes. You throw someone out in the street who is blind drunk and they get hit by a car, forget it, this is sue city. Second, if he heard these two arguing and then a muffled scream, why the hell didn`t he see what was going on? There is nothing to argue about, you get the girl a cab, so why didn`t he ask this punk what the hell he was doing? This guy is a moron.
This is really old news as his DNA was not found on the girl's body.
The NY Post has a better story. http://www.nypost.com/
If this guy didn't do it another guy did.
Running around bar hopping till 4 in the morning is a questionable activity. Nah I'm not 'blaming the victim' for anything but stupidity and hope others will learn from it. NYC at night was never a Ft. Lauderdale like spring break with drinking galore.
" He once robbed a bank of more than $60,000 -- during a blizzard"
Didn't the guy who posed as a cabbie, rape some woman in a snow storm? Hmmm
"But officials say they only knew about a second job he had at a mortgage company."
Vinnies Mortgage Emporium And Betting Parlor ?
It is both amazing and disgusting to see the lengths commentators are going to in order to avoid the common sense good advice that a woman should not be out drinking alone until 4 in the morning. Why was this young woman doing that? Was she hoping to meet someone? Didn't anybody ever tell her that nothing good happens on the street after midnight? Of course, some will attack my remarks as blaming the victim. But that is not the case. Nobody deserves to be murdered! Period! But does political correctness now demand that we abandon common sense entirely?
Furthermore, other articles have the employees saying that she was using racial explatives against the boucer ... sister and mother said it is not like the girl to say those things about blacks.
I hope the owner of this bar gets sued for not caring who he hired as a bouncer.
Everyone who worked there reported a scream and scuffle and no one looks? Disgusting.
Here, read this article by Mike Daly. I know Mike, he is a cool guy. A good friend of mine lent him his apt when he wrote his first book. This will tell you all about the Dorrians and the a-hole who ran that bar the night she was killed. Their arses are in the frying pan big time now. It`s one thing for Robert Chambers to leave with Jennifer Levin, two private citizens, but this punk Littlejohn WORKED for the Dorrians, and to top it off, this Danny Dorrian impeded the investigation. Can you imagine the lawsuit that is going to hit them? This very well destroy them.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/story/397923p-337040c.html
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