Posted on 03/04/2005 2:14:06 PM PST by Selkie
By WAYNE PARRY The Associated Press
JERSEY CITY, N.J. - The upstairs neighbor of an Egyptian Christian family found slain in their home in January was charged Friday, along with another man, in the murders.
Edward McDonald, 25, who rented a second-floor apartment above Hossam Armanious and his family, pleaded not guilty to four counts of felony murder. Hamilton Sanchez, 30, faces the same charges and also pleaded not guilty.
Sanchez during a court hearing began crying as he stood before a judge, his hands cuffed behind his back.
"I didn't kill nobody. I didn't kill nobody, man. I didn't kill nobody, people," Sanchez said, as he was led from the courtroom. McDonald stared at the floor during the hearing.
Both men, who were on parole for different drug offenses, were ordered held on $10 million cash bail.
Authorities said Armanious, 47; his wife, Amal Garas, 37, and their children - Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8 - were slain three days before their bodies were found Jan. 14.
(Excerpt) Read more at phillyburbs.com ...
The authorities aren't telling the truth and I don't blame them. They are deflecting attention as best they can (not very well however).
There was a surplus of anger in this killing. Robbery is not the prime mover. Deep seated anger...either misdirected or accurately directed.
But anger is the key.
"But anger is the key."
I'll try it in aussie-speak. Two drop-kicks with form, a history of dealing, they are tenants of a migrant family that is doing quite well financially, hard working, active in community affairs; the rent is high, they are both short of money and they hate immigrants. Of course they are angry, someone else has what they believe they deserve, a nice home and a family. Who did one of them owe money to? How desperate might he have been to repay a loan, what might the penalty have been for not settling this outstanding debt? Was the money owed to a drug supplier? Ouch!
Meanwhile the family is threatened by muslims on a website, the perps were I believe, regular visitors to the family, perhaps the father made the threats known to one of the perps and presto...what a perfect opportunity, we can rob them and sit tight, we don't have to run and draw attention to ourselves, the cops are going to blame you know who anyway...so the worse the bodies look, the less likelyhood there is that the murders will appear to have been part of a robbery. Hey, I could do this all day. I wish I had never heard of it. Let the cops have at it.
I can imagine it does exist. But (Occam's Razor), it just seems too damn convenient.
Could be...but my personal jury is still out.
Mine too. But there's nothing haphazard about jealousy and envy. Neither about facing retribution for an unpaid debt to a 'wholesaler' ...
The battering of faces beyond recognition. That takes time...that takes energy.
"The battering of faces beyond recognition."
That worries me. It worries me because I don't know, offhand, just where that statement came from nor who made it.
One of the daughters was said to have been recognized not by her face but by other means (body marks...tattoos).
Freckles, meow, indeed!
I wish I could give you an answer to that DS. This case doesn't make sense. When the facts come out, it still won't make sense. How do you make sense of the slaughter of a family in cold blood?
"But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived" 2 Timothy 3:13
The only answer I can come up with is evil!
My cat, Rastus said to tell you that maybe the man who did it hated children. There are people like that...
Will be back after visit to litter box.
Freckles
Actually you are right on the mark, a "simple"robbery would have been a lot neater-likely with no dead bodies
A druggie would be VERY quick and VERY dirty, with the pistol or other firearm muffled by a pillow, or less likely, a silencer. Druggie stuff is NOT thought out, but driven by the need to Get the moeny, eliminate any witnesses, and get the hell outta dodge. It strikes one as more than passing strange that the so-called suspects waited 3 days to use the ATM card--and then made no attempt whatsoever to hide their features Some places, namely the WaWa chain of convenience stores---rarely have cameras trained on the ATM machines. Druggies know that much--hide their features, and these did not do so.
THIS, OTOH, was PERSONAL. A point was being made for those willing to see and listen to heed. As of now, that lesson is not being heeded by many in the Jersey City prosecutors office.
I would expect no less.
DS
The extreme passion... the hatred shown towards the victims is very troubling to me too.
It's pretty personal when you can feel the other end of the piece of metal you're holding twisting inside the body of a child.
Sick animals.
You're missing the point that these weren't just typical drug users wanting quick cash to fulfil their immediate need... one was busted with a whole pound of coke last time they were caught.
Not only does this indicate they were likely distributing, but also it means that guy was deeply in debt when he was let out onto the street again.
SLAY SUSPECT'S
Grandfather of his 'wife' faces charges in Maine
Friday, March 11, 2005
By Michaelangelo Conte
Journal staff writer
One of the men charged with murdering the Armanious family was part of an interstate crack dealing group led by the grandfather of the woman he was living with, drug officers in Maine said yesterday.
The grandfather, 65-year-old Victor "Papo" Torres, of Jersey City, was charged with drug trafficking in Auburn, Maine, this week, but investigators say they do not believe he was involved in the Armanious murders.
When Edward McDonald, 25, was arrested last week and charged with four counts of felony murder for the Armanious killings, he had been living on Charles Street, in the Heights, with Stephanie Torres, the granddaughter of Victor Torres.
Victor Torres has a long criminal record in New Jersey, officials said, adding that his brother killed multiple family members on Palisade Avenue decades ago and his son was convicted of manslaughter after killing a man on Ogden Avenue.
Stephanie Torres, the mother of two of McDonald's children, has no criminal record, according to Special Agent Gerry Baril of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio
A wedding announcement for Torres and McDonald appeared in The Jersey Journal in 2002, though DeFazio said Torres told investigators the two are not married.
McDonald spent time in federal prison on drug charges stemming from an arrest in Maine in 2001, and DeFazio said that arrest was related to the Torres family drug trafficking there.
"If you look at the crimes that Victor Torres has been convicted of, what just happened with the family there in Jersey City with McDonald looking for money to buy crack, one could certainly draw the analogy that these folks are dangerous and have a propensity for violence," said Special Agent Gerry Baril of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.
"The connection between the girl he was living with shows a relationship and up here in Maine he was hooked up with another member of the Torres family."
"Apparently, the federal conviction of Edward McDonald was related to his activities with the Torres family in Maine."
The investigation that led to McDonald's arrest in Poland, Maine, in 2001, "associated him with members of the Torres family from Jersey City, suspected of importing and distributing cocaine and crack cocaine in the greater Lewiston-Auburn area," Baril said.
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