Slain Student's Family in Tears as Bouncer Pleads Not Guilty

March 23, 2006 — -- Manhattan bar bouncer Darryl Littlejohn was arraigned today in the gruesome slaying of graduate student Imette St. Guillen, and prosecutors confirmed he is also a "person of interest'' in other unsolved cases.

St. Guillen's mother, Maureen, and her sister, Alejandra, burst into tears as Littlejohn, shackled and staring straight ahead, was led into the courtroom. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The slain student's family, who had traveled to New York from Boston on Wednesday when news of the indictment spread, wore heart-shaped pictures of the slain student wrapped in red ribbons. They were accompanied by friends and surrounded by a phalanx of detectives. The family was quickly shuffled out of the courtroom following the arraignment.

"New York was Imette's home. She loved the city and its people," Alejandra St. Guillen said during a brief, emotional press conference following the arraignment. "Imette was a good person, a kind person. Her heart was full of love. With Imette's death, the world lost someone very special too soon." 

The evidence against Littlejohn, a 41-year-old parolee with a lengthy criminal record, includes DNA evidence linking the defendant's blood to the ties that were used to bind the graduate student's hands. Fibers found on the tape that bound the 24-year-old woman's head matched those found on two jackets and a rug from Littlejohn's apartment.    

St. Guillen's body was found dumped in a desolate section of Brooklyn on Feb. 25 with a white athletic sock stuffed in her mouth and her head wrapped with packaging tape.

Police also claim that cell phone records placed Littlejohn near the abandoned lot where the body was discovered. 

Littlejohn has said he was visiting his mother on the day of the killing. In a jailhouse interview, he said  police have "the wrong person.''