Arizona prosecutor refuses to extradite suspect to NYC, blasts DA Alvin Bragg
Maricopa County, Ariz. prosecutor Rachel Mitchell details why she refuses to extradite a career criminal accused of murder in New York City due to DA Alvin Bragg’s soft-on-crime policies.
Critics of the lenient bail policies and woke Democratic prosecutors warn Raad Almansoori, a New York City murder suspect, shows signs of a budding serial killer.
And they don't want to risk letting him loose for the second time in just a few months.
He is accused of brutally killing a woman in a SoHo hotel, strangling her and crushing her skull with an iron before surveillance video appeared to show him stepping out onto the streets wearing her leggings. He soon arrived in Phoenix, Arizona, where he allegedly stabbed a woman, stole her car and made his way to a suburban McDonald's, where prosecutors say he stabbed another woman before police arrested him in Scottsdale.
But months before any of that, according to court documents from a dropped case in Florida, he was accused of abducting a female co-worker, sexually assaulting her, choking her and threatening to kill her. Prosecutors dropped most of the charges, and he went free in September with $2,500 and just a grand theft auto case pending.
Raad Almansoori, who police say is wearing Denisse Oleas-Arancibia's leggings after she was killed (NYPD)
After his arrest in Scottsdale, he allegedly told police to "Google the SoHo 54 hotel," the building where the NYPD alleges he murdered Denisse Oleas-Arancibia. According to authorities, he also claimed to have hurt three more women in Florida.
With Almansoori now being held in a jail in Maricopa County, Arizona, local District Attorney Rachel Mitchell has argued that her Manhattan counterpart Alvin Bragg's progressive policies and New York laws allowing the release of violent suspects on low or no bail have created a dangerous environment not just in the Big Apple, but around the entire country.
"It was just a couple of weeks ago that some of the illegal immigrants that were in New York City who beat up on police officers were let go," Mitchell said. "They were flipping the camera off as they walked out of jail, and guess where they ended up?
"Four of them ended up in Maricopa County, and they had to be taken into custody here. I don't want that to happen. I don't want this individual getting out and able to victimize more people."
‘MANIAC’ WHO BRUTALLY MURDERED WOMAN WITH IRON IN NYC HOTEL ARRESTED IN ARIZONA: POLICE
Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, who was killed two weeks ago in a New York City hotel (Fox 5)
This is not the first custody battle involving Almonsoori, who has now been accused of viciously attacking women in at least three states. While he was being held without bail on grand theft auto charges in Sumter County, Florida, in April 2023, he was served with a warrant on more serious charges, including sexual battery and assault, in nearby Orlando, according to a spokesperson for Republican States Attorney Bill Galdson of the 5th Judicial Circuit.
The victim in that case, Leah Palian, says Orlando-based prosecutors from the 9th Judicial Circuit ignored warnings that the murder suspect was a "potential serial killer."
She faulted prosecutors on Facebook for "callously" reducing the charges against him and told Fox News Digital he reminded her of Ted Bundy, the infamous serial killer who preyed on young women around the country in the 1970s, and Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker."
"I think the Night Stalker, he actually has so much in common. They even kind of look alike to an extent," she said.
The suspect sought for strangling and bludgeoning a woman found dead in a SoHo hotel has been nabbed in Arizona after he allegedly stabbed two women there, a police source said Tuesday. NYPD detectives want to question Raad Almansoori about the Feb. 8 murder of Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, who was found strangled and struck in the head with an iron inside the SoHo 54 hotel on Watts St. near Sixth Avenue. (Surprise Police Dept./New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
She said the news of Oleas-Arancibia's murder rattled her because she already suspected he could someday kill someone after her harrowing encounter.
"I saw that statement they put out, and they said they didn't have enough evidence," she told Fox News Digital. "To that, I would like to say I don't think that this is a case of evidence or lack thereof, I think it's a case of evidence."
For example, she said, after he allegedly stole her car, he then used his own ID at a pawn shop to sell the bicycle off of her bike rack.
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Almansoori allegedly stole her phone, strangled her and claimed she "made the devil come out" before sexually assaulting her, according to court documents, which include graphic depictions. She escaped by asking him to let her use a public restroom, which she locked herself inside while calling 911 for help.
"The one thing that I knew that was holding him in there and was keeping me safe was that he had a bail that he could not afford, but once they dropped it, it was just devastating," Palian said.
"The one thing that I knew that was holding him in there and was keeping me safe was that he had a bail that he could not afford, but once they dropped it, it was just devastating."
Court records show 9th Circuit prosecutors dropped all but the car theft charges against Almansoori in June. Ninth Judicial Circuit State's Attorney Andrew Bain's office told Fox News Digital Thursday it could not discuss the active case in detail but that investigators had insufficient evidence to support the sex assault charges despite graphic testimony from the victim.
Asked about the feud between Mitchell and Bragg, Palian said she just wants to see Almansoori locked up for as long as possible.
"I actually do not know about other state’s judicial systems. I just know about my state and how it failed me," she said. "I want whatever is going to keep this man behind bars and is going to keep him off the streets and keep women safe."
Bain's office on Wednesday filed to have Almansoori's September bond revoked.
"We are disheartened to hear about the tragic events in New York and Arizona, and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their loved ones and all the communities impacted," a spokesperson said.
"I am so livid, to be honest, about them putting out that statement that says we did the best we could basically, when there's a literal charge in my case that they dropped that I could provide you a plethora of evidence for," Palian countered.
Mitchell, the Arizona prosecutor, said she is done leaving things to chance.
"I want whatever is going to keep this man behind bars and is going to keep him off the streets and keep women safe."
District Attorney Alvin Bragg explains an evidence video during a press conference Feb. 8, 2024, in New York, where he announced charges for migrants involved in a Times Square brawl with police. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
"Even though there is a homicide in New York, we can guarantee that he is going to stay in custody here," she told "Fox & Friends" Thursday morning. "Let me be very clear, my heart goes out to the next of kin of the victim in New York, [and] I'm not casting aspersions on the NYPD either … but we have a case here, and we have him in custody."
John Kelly, a criminal profiler who has interviewed serial killers, agreed with the Florida victim that Almansoori shares traits with a budding serial killer.
This photo provided by the Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff’s Office shows Raad Almansoori, who is a suspect in the bludgeoning death of a woman in a New York City hotel. He was charged Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024, in attacks on two women in Arizona’s largest county. (Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
"You've got a live one here, with a few things going on, disassociation being one of them," he told Fox News Digital. "It looks like he was on his way, was getting started, so it's a good thing they got him."
Paul Mauro, a retired NYPD inspector, also warned that Almansoori shared telltale characteristics with other killers and has shown himself to be a danger to the public.
"Arizona can hold him and tell all these other jurisdictions to pound sand while they adjudicate their own case," he said. "If they convict him and lock him up, Bragg may not see this guy until he’s out of office."
"Arizona can hold him and tell all these other jurisdictions to pound sand while they adjudicate their own case. If they convict him and lock him up, Bragg may not see this guy until Bragg is out of office."
Bragg's office pushed back at Mitchell's remarks in a statement this week.
"It is deeply disturbing that DA Mitchell is playing political games in a murder investigation," spokeswoman Emily Tuttle told The Arizona Republic. "In Manhattan, we are serious about New Yorkers’ safety, which is why murders are down 24% and shootings are down 38% since DA Bragg took office."
She said New York's murder rate is less than half of Phoenix's and called the refusal to extradite Almansoori "a slap in the face."
Rachel Mitchell, a Republican prosecutor from Arizona, listens during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., Sept. 27, 2018. (Andrew Harnik/Pool via Bloomberg)
According to NYPD crime data from 2000 to 2022, Big Apple murders reached a record low in 2017 at 292 and climbed every year until reaching 488 in 2021. Bragg took office in 2022, when there were 438 murders, up more than 100 from the pre-pandemic total of 319 in 2019.
Robberies, meanwhile, remained near record lows from 2017 to 2021 and spiked by thousands in 2022. The bellwether crime afflicted 17,411 individual victims that year.
Murders are rare in general and typically involve gang or domestic violence, Mauro said.
"That's a real crime when people are coming into your neighborhood to steal from you," he said. "Those are the things that people feel and lead to quality-of-life declines."
Mayor Eric Adams, left, and District Attorney Alvin Bragg, right, listen during a press conference Feb. 8, 2024, in New York, where they announced several charges for migrants involved in a Times Square brawl with police. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
In response to a request for comment, Bragg's office pointed to a Thursday news briefing in which Bragg defended crime stats under his term in office and accused Mitchell of "grandstanding" and playing "political games."
"I do not know what they do in Arizona, but here in this county, New York County, we routinely seek and get remands, which means the person's in custody, in our murder cases," he said.
He also said the four migrants arrested in Maricopa were not suspects in the NYPD assault case. He added that seven suspects in that crime are now being held in city jails after his office secured a superseding indictment.
"I have never in my career seen a situation where law enforcement officials have refused to extradite someone because they had zero confidence in the ability [or] commitment of the requesting agency to prosecute," David Gelman, a former New Jersey prosecutor, told Fox News Digital. "It’s really unprecedented."
Gelman wrote a Feb. 13 op-ed about the issue for Fox News Digital, arguing that Democratic bail reforms allow "extremely dangerous" suspects to roam free.
"This is why blue states and liberal-leaning jurisdictions have the problems they have," he said Thursday.
Bragg took office with a controversial "Day 1" memo in which he called on prosecutors in his office to seek non-prison punishments for some crimes and to release more suspects from jail until their trials. He has since retreated on some issues.
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"In Bragg’s defense, he outlined exactly what he wasn’t going to do — basically his job — before he was elected," said Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "It was all on his website for all to see, but that doesn’t matter."
"In Bragg’s defense, he outlined exactly what he wasn’t going to do – basically his job – before he was elected."
Elections have consequences, he added.
"The fact that we are even talking about this goes to show you how nutty things have gotten in the New York state criminal justice system," Giacalone added. "Was it political and grandstanding? Yes, but is she wrong? That’s the question."
Fox News' Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
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