The suspect in a recent grisly SoHo murder moved Monday to drag out the process of being extradited to New York from Arizona, where a local prosecutor is trying to keep him until a trial on lesser charges is done.
In a procedural hearing in Superior Court in Maricopa County, accused killer Raad Almansoori indicated he would neither plead guilty nor accede to an immediate extradition should one come. Instead, a formal extradition process could be kicked off once Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs receives a request originated by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
In the meantime, a trial for a pair of Arizona stabbings blamed on Almansoori is expected to get underway.
“The local charges by law have to be resolved before anything can happen with your New York case,” said local Commissioner Barbara Spencer.
Almansoori allegedly bludgeoned and strangled Denisse Oleas-Arancibia of Queens to death last month in Manhattan, afterward traveling to Arizona, where he’s accused of stabbing two women.
Upon being arrested there, the man allegedly told authorities to google the SoHo hotel as the NYPD hunted for Oleas-Arancibia’s killer.
But then grandstanding Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell refused to send him to the Big Apple, saying she didn’t trust Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to handle the case.
“Having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by the Manhattan DA there, Alvin Bragg, it’s safer to keep him here and keep him in custody so he can’t be out doing this to individuals either in our state or county or the United States,” said the Republican Arizona prosecutor, who’s up for reelection.
Bragg, a Democrat, fired back, accusing Mitchell of playing “political games.”
His office indicated Monday it would move ahead with an extradition request.
“Seeking justice for victims and survivors is our priority at the Manhattan DA’s office. We do not stand on ceremony but prioritize the integrity of the process,” Emily Tuttle said in a statement.
“We are proceeding as we do in each and every case involving an out-of-state arrest: following the facts and the law to ensure justice is served,” she said.
Oleas-Arancibia’s body was found in a room at the SoHo 54 hotel on Feb. 8, with a bloody iron next to her and bits of plastic embedded in her head.
Almansoori flew to Arizona shortly after the killing, where, weeks later, he was arrested as a suspect in the attempted murders of two Arizona women. While in custody there, he confessed to murdering Oleas-Arancibia, 38, and described the killing in graphic detail.
After he’d already fled, NYPD detectives identified him as a suspect from matching up his credit card number from a Burger King receipt found in bloody pants he left in the hotel room where Oleas-Arancibia’s body was found.
“Not a single woman on this planet likes me, so I was very upset,” Almansoori allegedly told police when he was arrested.
Almansoori was indicted by a grand jury last week in Arizona and is being held without bond on the charges in the state.
He’s suspected of stabbing an 18-year-old victim multiple times in the neck after following her into a Surprise, Ariz., McDonald’s bathroom and crawling under a stall. Almansoori is also accused of stabbing a 22-year-old woman in Phoenix in her car. He allegedly had planned to kill his father and stepmother and burn down their house, an Arizona police detective testified last week.
With Molly Crane-Newman
