Feb. 21 (UPI) — An Arizona Republican district attorney on Wednesday refused to extradite a suspected murderer to New York City because of what she said was her distrust of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Maricopa County District Attorney Rachel Mitchell said she won’t agree to send Raad Noan Almansoori, 26, to New York City and instead will hold him without bail in Arizona, where he’s accused of recently stabbing two women in separate attacks, NBC News and CBS News reported.
Almansoori allegedly stabbed a Phoenix woman during a recent carjacking and later allegedly stabbed a McDonald’s employee.
Almansoori is accused of killing of killing Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, 38, whom a SoHo 54 Hotel employee found dead inside one of the hotel’s rooms on Feb. 8.
Video from a surveillance camera allegedly shows Almansoori leaving the crime scene while wearing leggings that belonged to Oleas-Arancibia.
Prosecutors say he left New York for Arizona soon after the murder on Feb. 12 and committed the additional crimes of which he is accused. When arrested, Almansoori told police officers to Google “SoHo 54 Hotel,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told CBS News.
Bragg dispatched attorneys to Arizona to request that the state extradite Almansoori to New York, but Mitchell said that won’t happen.
“Having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by the Manhattan DA there, Alvin Bragg, I think it’s safer to keep him here and keep him in custody so that he cannot be out doing this to individuals either in our state, county or anywhere in the United States,” Mitchell told reporters.
A representative for Bragg accused Mitchell of playing politics with a murder investigation.
Despite the refusal to extradite Almansoori, the case against him in New York might only be delayed while Mitchell prosecutes the cases against him in Arizona. New York law does not place a statute of limitation on first-degree murder, according to the New York State Unified Court System.
