The suspect in the New York hotel murder of Denisse Oleas-Arancibia — and two knife attacks on women in Arizona — was also charged last year with an attack on a woman in Florida, but a state attorney’s office there dropped all the charges except an auto theft charge.
Raad Almansoori bonded out of jail after that and later flew to New York, as CrimeOnline previously reported. There, he allegedly killed Oleas-Arancibia earlier this month and traded his bloody jeans for her leggings before walking out of the SoHo 54 Hotel.
Days later, he flew to Arizona, where he carjacked a woman outside a Starbucks at knifepoint and later stabbed a Surprise McDonald’s employee inside a restroom stall before Scottdale police located the stolen car and arrested him.
In custody, he told officers he’d killed a woman in New York, telling them to “Google Soho 54.”
Almansoori had been charged with multiple counts, including sexual battery and aggravated assault, in an alleged attack against a co-worker, 26-year-old Leah Palian, the New York Daily News reported.
But the Office of the State Attorney in Orlando, where the alleged attack took place, told the Daily News that there was “insufficient evidence to prove” those charges “beyond a reasonable doubt,” despite Palian’s detailed reported.
“In this case, we thoroughly vetted the investigation, conducted an extensive interview with the victim in person and combed through all available evidence,” said Jason Gunn, a spokesman for the state attorney’s office.
That left only the grand theft auto charge, and Almansoori quickly bonded out of jail and remained in Florida until January 26, when he flew to New York.
In light of the murder of Oleas-Arancibia and the charges in Arizona, the state attorney’s office has since moved to revoke Almansoori’s $2,500 bail.
That’s too little, too late, Palian told the Daily News.
“I told the state attorney’s office flat out that if you give this man a slap on the wrist, he will hurt someone else and become a serial killer,” she said.
The state attorney’s office even dropped a charge relating to Palian’s stolen bicycle — which was in her car when Almansoori took it — and which he pawned.
“They didn’t even move forward with the stolen bike charge,” she told the Daily News. “They failed on so many levels. They let go of so many of the violent charges [against] a woman.
“Had they not failed me the first time, none of these things would have been able to happen,” Palian added.
The details of Almansoori’s attack on Palian are excrutiating. The two worked together in a kitchen at an Orlando restaurant. She said she learned he was biking to work — a 35 minute trip by car — because his car was in the shop, so she started giving him rides on days they worked together. When he told her his car was repaired, she agreed to let him spend the night on her sofa so she could take him to the repair shop the next morning. But that night, things went haywire.
“I wake up the next day and [Almansoori] is bear hugging me in my bed,” she said. “And I’m like, this is not OK. I tell him get off of me get out of my room.”
He allegedly held her phone to her face to unlock it and went through her messages, blocking men he thought she was flirting with. When he saw a text she sent to a friend about his odd behavior the night before, he began closing the blinds and locking the doors.
“He got on top of me and starts strangling me with a dead look in his eyes,” Palian said. “He said, ‘Scream and I’ll kill you.’”
He didn’t, and let her up. He forced her to perform oral sex on him, and then she persuaded him to let her take him to pick up his car. Still afraid he was going to kill her, she convinced him to stop at a convenience store so she could use the restroom. But when she took took long — she was calling 911 — he got the manager to unlock the door.
According to the complaint, Palian “screamed, ‘Stop! Do not let him near me! I am on the phone with 911!’” Almansoori took off in her car. HE was found the next day, still in her car, two hours north of Orlando.
Almansoori even called Palian, who had an order of protection against him, on February 8 — the day he is believed to have killed Oleas-Arancibia. And on Tuesday, the Florida detectives handling the grand theft auto charge that remained against him called her to say he was a suspect in Oleas-Arancibia’s murder.
“The first thing out of my mouth was, oh, my God, I told them this would happen,” Palian said. “I shouted that over and over. I was in a state of shock; I was in a state of disbelief. I knew he was capable of doing this and no one took me seriously. It was infuriating and heartbreaking.”
Prosecutors in New York have requested Almansoori’s extradition, but the prosecutor in Arizona has denied it, saying she believes he is more likely to stay behind bars in Arizona. For Palian, though, it’s Florida that dropped the ball.
“I just want to emphasize how badly the state of Florida failed us as women,” she said. “Not only me, but allowed these atrocities to happen when they had every opportunity to prevent it.”
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[Featured image: Raad Almansoori/Surprise Police Department and New York Police Department]
