Mar 7, 2006 11:58 pm US/Eastern
Bouncer's Arrest Unrelated To St. Guillen Murder
Though Darryl Littlejohn Remains "A Person Of Interest"
by Brendan Keefe
QUEENS (CBS) ―
Crime scene investigators on Tuesday inspected a minivan possibly linked to the bouncer questioned in the murder of Imette St. Guillen.
According to sources, Darryl Littlejohn, 41, is in custody on Rikers Island on an unrelated parole violation. Police are calling him "a person of interest" -- not a suspect -- and he has not been charged in connection with the graduate student's murder.
But police are clearly following a trail of evidence trying to track down her killer.
*The primary crime scene was established on Feb. 25 when St. Guillen's body was found just off the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn. Her hands and feet bound with wire, her head covered with packing tape, and the body wrapped in a floral-patterned quilt.
*The second crime scene was identified on Sunday in SoHo. Investigators searched The Falls bar and the entire building where the 24-year-old grad student was last seen alive -- after police were told a bouncer escorted St. Guillen outside and didn't return.
*That led detectives to search a third location on Monday -- Littlejohn's house in South Jamaica. Sources say a removable minivan seat was found inside the home.
Then Tuesday afternoon a potential fourth crime scene was established just a few blocks from the bouncer's home. Detectives were scrutinizing a silver Ford minivan that may hold the key to solving St. Guillen's murder.
Police obtained a search warrant for the van and towed it away.
Sources tell CBS 2 police believe that removable seat found in the bouncer's basement apartment might have come from the silver minivan.
St. Guillen, a student at John Jay College in Manhattan, was last seen alive at The Falls, a SoHo hot spot. Initially, witnesses said she had quietly walked out the door alone when the bar closed at 4 a.m., police said.
The bar's owner and his lawyer came forward late last week and revealed that he had ordered Littlejohn to toss her out when she complained that she was not being allowed to finish a drink, a law enforcement official said. The owner said he later overheard "some sort of arguing and a commotion" as the bouncer took the woman outside, the official said.
The official said investigators have cell phone records possibly linking the bouncer to the East New York spot where St. Guillen was found. The records show his phone was used in the same vicinity about two hours before police -- responding to an anonymous 911 from a public phone -- discovered her naked and bound body.
Parole officials said Littlejohn was conditionally released in 2004 after serving time for a 1995 bank robbery conviction. He allegedly violated the conditions of his parole by failing to observe a 7 p.m. curfew by working at The Falls, the officials said. The bouncer's aunt told reporters outside his home in South Jamaica that she could not believe he was responsible for the crime.
"I'm hoping that he's exonerated, but I hope also that they catch whoever did this," she said.
Crime scene investigators seemed to pay particular attention to the driveway of the man's home.
"They were looking for different types of samples, blood and hair, and different types of things that they listed on there. There were a number of items on there -- like 12 or 13 items," the bouncer's aunt said.
At The Falls, sources said packing tape similar to the type used to cover the victim's face was found.
Sources close to the investigation told CBS 2 that the bouncer has a scratch on the back of his neck, and the healing is consistent with the time of the student's murder. Those sources also say, he was the only employee at the bar to refuse to give a voluntary DNA sample.
A $42,000 reward has been offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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