NEW YORK (AP) – A bouncer with a long rap sheet has been charged with murder in the slaying of a graduate student who was raped, strangled and dumped last month in a desolate section of Brooklyn, two law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
An announcement of a murder indictment against Darryl Littlejohn, 41, is expected Thursday, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the indictment was still sealed.
Police have said blood found on the plastic ties used to bind Imette St. Guillen’s hands behind her back matched Littlejohn’s.
A call to Littlejohn’s attorney was not immediately returned. His lawyer has said he was being scapegoated because police could not find the real killer.
Littlejohn has denied killing St. Guillen and said Wednesday in an interview with WCBS-TV, conducted at the jail where he is being held on a parole violation, that police “have the wrong person.”
He said he was asked to escort the woman out of a bar where she had been drinking just before closing; his attorney did not allow questions about what happened next.
Littlejohn provided a DNA sample when asked, he said.
“I cooperated fully,” he said in the interview, conducted Tuesday and aired Wednesday evening.
St. Guillen’s body was found Feb. 25 with a sock stuffed in her mouth and her head wrapped with packing tape. The 24-year-old student at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan was last seen alive early that morning at The Falls, a SoHo bar where Littlejohn worked as a bouncer.
A manager at the bar told police that Littlejohn escorted her out after she stayed past the 4 a.m. closing time. The manager also recalled hearing the pair arguing as they left.
Littlejohn, whose record includes robbery, drug and gun convictions, has been locked up on a parole violation while police built their case. He was accused of violating his parole by working at the bar past his 9 p.m. curfew.
In addition to linking the blood to Littlejohn, investigators said that his cell phone was used in the area where the body was found.
AP-ES-03-22-06 2201EST
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