Bouncer Convicted of Murdering New York City Graduate Student
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A nightclub bouncer was convicted Wednesday of murdering a graduate student whose naked body was found bound and gagged and wrapped in a quilt on a desolate roadside.
Wearing dark glasses, Darryl Littlejohn stared straight ahead as the first-degree murder verdict was read. A jury had deliberated for less than a day in the case, which stirred memories of New York's notorious "preppie killer" slaying and spurred a city crackdown on nightlife security.
The 44-year-old parolee faces up to life in prison without parole in the 2006 death of criminal justice student Imette St. Guillen of Boston. His sentencing is set for July 8; Littlejohn is already serving 25 years to life for kidnapping another woman.
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St. Guillen's family and friends wept quietly in the courtroom as the verdict was read.
After a night out, St. Guillen quarreled with a friend outside a Manhattan bar early on Feb. 24, 2006. St. Guillen wanted to continue drinking, but her friend called it a night.
St. Guillen then walked to The Falls, a bar owned by the same family who ran the tavern where "preppie killer" Robert Chambers met Jennifer Levin before strangling her during rough sex in the 1980s — a fact Littlejohn's lawyers emphasized in his trial.
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St. Guillen stayed at The Falls past closing. Witnesses said she was asked to leave, and Littlejohn escorted her out.
Her body was found later that day along a road in Brooklyn. She had been beaten and sexually assaulted before being asphyxiated.