A man charged in an abduction and killing of a homeless man in Ithaca, New York, earlier in the year was captured by Lewiston police last month.
The suspect was one of two men arrested by Lewiston police recently and returned to the states in which they were being sought for their involvement in unrelated murders.
In the Ithaca case, police investigating a criminal trespass complaint on lower Main Street on Aug. 2 arrested Jonathan Glennon, 31, of New York. At the time, Glennon was charged with possessing methamphetamine and violating conditions of release.
Two weeks later, while he was being held at the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn, Lewiston police also charged Glennon with being a fugitive from justice in connection with a murder warrant issued in New York.
Jonathan Glennon Lewiston police photo
The killing for which Glennon was wanted was sensational in New York during the spring and early summer.
According to news accounts, Thomas Rath, 33, was reported missing from a homeless encampment in Ithaca on May 20. On Aug. 3 his remains were found in a shallow grave on state land in neighboring Tioga County.
As police in New York investigated, several people — men and women between the ages of 27 and 52 — were rounded up and charged in connection with Rath’s abduction and killing. Two men, including Glennon, have been charged with murder. Other suspects have been charged with kidnapping.
Investigators in New York say Rath had been forcibly abducted from his homeless encampment in an area behind a Lowe’s hardware store. It’s an area known on the outskirts of Ithaca as “The Jungle.”
Police have not revealed the manner of death or disclosed a possible motive for the slaying, although it was disclosed that the 10 suspects in the killing were all acquainted and that drugs may have been involved.
Just over a week later, Lewiston police found themselves tangling with another out-of-state murder suspect.
On Aug. 10, police assigned to the department’s Crime Reduction Unit, Criminal Investigation Division and Community Resource Team worked on a tip that Zaquikon Roy, 35, of Brooklyn, New York, was in Lewiston attempting to hide from authorities in Vermont where he was wanted on a murder charge.
Zaquikon Roy Lewiston police photo
Roy was located in the area of Pine Street but fled when police approached him, investigators said. The foot chase continued for several blocks before police captured him in the area of Horton Street.
Roy was found to be in possession of 10 grams of crack cocaine and police said they located a firearm in his apartment. He was charged, at the time, with being a felon in possession of a firearm — Roy is prohibited from having firearms due to previous criminal convictions, police said.
Roy has since been returned to Vermont where he was wanted on a murder charge.
In that case, Roy is accused of shooting two men, one of them fatally, in a dispute over the quantity of cocaine Roy had purchased from the men in Middlebury, Vermont, on June 4. According to court documents, after the drug deal, Roy tracked down the two men, who were brothers, at their camper in nearby Leicester where he shot them both. One of the brothers survived.
It’s not unheard of for wanted murder suspects to be captured in Lewiston, but two in a month was considered rare. Both suspects were taken into custody without injury.
“We are very fortunate to have professional, well-trained officers,” Lewiston police Lt. Derrick St. Laurent said. “We take public safety very seriously and these suspects are very dangerous. We are dealing with potential violence everywhere — we never know who we might encounter.”
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