U.S. & World

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Blood found on the plastic ties used to bind strangled student Imette St. Guillen has been matched to prime suspect Darryl Littlejohn, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Sunday. The case will now go to a Brooklyn grand jury.

Kelly said the plastic ties were used to bind St. Guillen's hands behind her back. Sources told the Daily News milky white ties were recovered from Littlejohn's basement apartment in Queens. Kelly wouldn't comment on how blood got onto the restraints but the Daily News reports Littlejohn had a scratch on the back of his neck when he was brought in for questioning.

"When you talk about DNA, we're talking about the certainty of 1 in a trillion, so it is a very important piece of evidence for us," said Kelly.

The New York Police Department commissioner said authorities would be taking that match and other evidence to a grand jury to get an indictment against Littlejohn for the murder of the graduate student last month. He didn't give a date for when the grand jury would get the case, but it could start meeting as early as Monday.

"There's no question that the charge would be first-degree premeditated murder," CBS News legal analyst Wendy Murphy says. "The grand jury could return an indictment in as soon as an hour after they hear this kind of evidence. It's that strong."

The New York Times reports that investigators questioned Littlejohn for two days, placed him in lineups for possible identification by victims in other crimes and carried away bags of potential evidence from the bar where he worked and from his home in Queens, where only circumstantial evidence was found. The New York Daily News had reported earlier police had considered Littlejohn their sole suspect.

Littlejohn's DNA was on file from a previous bank robbery conviction and police grabbed fresh samples - from his food, drink and utensils - before he was taken into police custody March 5, according to the Daily News.

Littlejohn, 41, in custody at a Rikers Island jail on a parole violation, was a bouncer at The Falls bar, where St. Guillen, 24, was last seen alive. A manager at the bar has told police he ordered Littlejohn to escort her out when she stayed sipping a drink past the 4 a.m. closing time; he recalled hearing the pair arguing before they disappeared through a side door.

Sometime during the next 17 hours, the student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan was raped, strangled and suffocated. Her naked and bound body was found in a remote section of Brooklyn on Feb. 25 with a sock stuffed in her mouth and her head wrapped with packaging tape.

Kelly said witnesses reported seeing Littlejohn and St. Guillen leaving the bar together and records put his cell phone near where her body was found. Littlejohn's cell phone allowed them to trace his path from his Queens home at 5 p.m. to near the body drop site an hour later

"There is telephone evidence, telephone records, that put the telephone that Mr. Littlejohn had in his possession in the vicinity, the immediate vicinity, of where the body was located and also the route to that location," Kelly said.

A homeless man and woman sleeping in a small park across the street from The Falls told Daily News reporters they each saw Littlejohn put St. Guillen into the passenger seat of a van.

Although there has been a significant amount of circumstantial evidence implicating Littlejohn, until now, this is the first physical evidence linking him to the crime.

WBZ reporter Dan Rea reported last week that carpet fibers on the tape covering St. Guillen's brutalized face were linked to Littlejohn. But police said semen stains on a floral blanket wrapped around St. Guillen's body did not trace back to him, sources told the New York Daily News. The semen results were among the "inconclusive" findings from several DNA and forensic tests, many of which must now be repeated, the sources said.

In another setback to investigators last week, DNA recovered from underneath St. Guillen's fingernails did not match Littlejohn's, sources told the New York Post.

Littlejohn maintains his innocence. His attorney, Kevin O'Donnell, has said the parolee "feels like a scapegoat" and is "upset" because his picture has been published in newspapers across the country.

Littlejohn also has come under investigation for possible connections to three other assaults. Kelly said investigations into those sexual assaults would continue.

Records show Littlejohn's first brush with the law came 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.

His aunt Addie Harris has tried to defend him publicly in the St. Guillen case, arguing, "Many people have a record, but that doesn't mean he committed that type of crime."

Littlejohn shouldn't have been working at the bar St. Guillen visited because the job kept him out past his 9 p.m. parole curfew.

Police are continuing to conduct forensics tests, and Kelly added "there is a lot more forensic work to be done in this case." The Daily News reports that investigators are waiting for DNA evidence from a gray van that was missing a seat later found in the suspect's flat.

Chris Lang, the St. Guillen family spokesman tells the New York Post "they watched the press conference. They want (Littlejohn) to be arrested and charged officially before they make a statement."

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)