A Maricopa County grand jury has indicted Raad Almansoori on multiple counts related to a carjacking and a stabbing in Arizona, where he fled after killing a woman in a Manhattan hotel earlier this month.
According to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, which refuses to extradite Almansoori to New York, the grand jury indicted him on two counts of attempted murder, two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of attempted sexual assault, and one count each of attempted armed robbery and theft of a means of transportation, KSAZ reported.
Almansoori, 26, was released from jail in Florida last fall after the State Attorney’s office dropped all charges related to a brutal attack on a coworker, as CrimeOnline reported. The State Attorney left a grand theft auto charge in place — he had stolen the woman’s car in addition to the sexual assault — and he subsequently bonded out of jail for $2,500.
Weeks later, he flew to New York, where he is accused of killing 38-year-old Denisse Oleas-Arancibia at the swanky SoHo 54 Hotel, escaping in her leggings and leaving his bloody jeans behind in the hotel room. Days later, he flew to Arizona, where he stabbed a woman in Phoenix and stole her car, then chased a McDonald’s employee into a restroom in Surprise, crawling under the stall door, and stabbed her when she screamed.
He was caught a few hours later in a Scottsdale parking garage.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell refused to extradite him to New York, saying she believed authorities there would let him out on bail. She did not make similar comments about his release in Florida or in Texas, where he is also suspected of violent attacks on women but not jailed.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accused Mitchell of “playing political games in a murder investigation” and pointed out that Manhattan has a murder rate less than half that of Phoenix.
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[Featured image: Raad Almansoori/Surprise Police Department and New York Police Department]
