On February 8, a woman was found bludgeoned to death with an iron in a Manhattan hotel room. Police announced this week that a 26-year-old man was arrested in Arizona on suspicion of stabbing another woman days after the New York murder.
The normal course of events would be for the suspect to be sent back to New York to face charges – a standard extradition. But on Wednesday, Arizona prosecutors refused, saying they did not believe Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg could be trusted to take him into custody.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said at a press conference Wednesday that her team is working with Bragg as her office seeks to indict Raad Almansouri for the murder of Dennis Oleas, 38. He said he would not cooperate with him. Arancibia.
“I observed Manhattan Attorney General Alvin Bragg's treatment of violent criminals in the New York area,” Mitchell told reporters. “I think it's safer to keep him here and detain him so he can't do something like this to an individual in our state, our county, or anywhere else in the United States.” Masu.”
The remarks, which a publicist later tried to soften, thrust the story in his hometown of New York into a national debate over politics and crime, with former President Donald J. Trump accused of being orchestrated by Mr. Bragg. The prosecution fueled the cyclone. A case involving the concealment of hush money payments to a porn actress in order to cover up her affair before the 2016 election.
Both prosecutors have national recognition, and Mitchell, a Republican, was nominated in 2018 to play a key role in the Senate confirmation hearings for one of Trump's Supreme Court nominees. Mr. Bragg, a Democrat, has become a lightning rod for complaints by Mr. Trump and his allies that he is being persecuted as he seeks a second term in the White House.
Emily Tuttle, a spokeswoman for Mr Bragg, said Mr Mitchell's comments were a serious insult.
“It is deeply disturbing that Prosecutor Mitchell is playing politics with this murder investigation,” Tuttle said in a statement. He also noted that murders and mass shootings have decreased since Mr. Bragg took office.
“New York City's homicide rate is less than half that of Phoenix, Arizona, thanks to the hard work of the NYPD and all of our law enforcement partners,” Tuttle said. “Our refusal to demand justice and full accountability for the deaths of New Yorkers is a slap in the face to them and to the victims in our cases.”
Since the start of his term in 2022, Mr. Bragg has drawn criticism for his handling of crime in the nation's most populous city. Police unions and Republican officials have complained that too many dangerous people are being held on bail pending trial, and that Mr. Bragg has not been able to prosecute them as aggressively as possible. But there was no indication that Mr. Bragg's office would not attempt to take the hotel murder suspect into custody.
New York police officials said Wednesday that Almansouri flew to Arizona after employees discovered Oleas Aranchibia's body in a room at the SoHo 54 Hotel. Al-Mansouri was arrested on February 18th after stabbing a McDonald's restaurant worker. Mr. Almansouri has been in custody in Maricopa County ever since.
In an email after Wednesday's press conference, a spokesperson said Al-Mansouri will not be extradited because he also faces felony charges related to the stabbing in Arizona.
A spokeswoman said Arizona law requires cases to be completed before extradition.
After Trump was indicted in Manhattan last March in a hush-money case, prominent Republicans, including Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, focused on crime in New York City. A public hearing was held. They painted Mr. Bragg as a hypocrite who was more focused on his political campaign than his backyard misdeeds.
Mitchell, a longtime local attorney, is running for his second term after becoming the county's top prosecutor in a 2022 special election.
According to Rachel Mitchell's website, “Rachel Mitchell is a lifelong conservative and veteran prosecutor with a history of enforcing the rule of law, locking up criminals, and keeping communities safe.'' “Yes.”
Mitchell gained national attention for his relentless and probing questioning of Christine Blasey Ford on behalf of Republicans during the 2018 confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. Ta.
Ford has accused Trump presidential candidate Kavanaugh of sexual assault decades ago, and the move to appoint Mitchell for questioning has left the Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee, all male, in a position of social anxiety. It was seen by some as a means of isolation from the public. Attack Mr. Ford.
Before that hearing, Mitchell had built a reputation for passionately pursuing cases such as sexual assault and child molestation, while lobbying for stronger laws regulating such crimes.
Her comments Wednesday about Mr. Bragg, seen by many in the party as a sworn enemy of the former president, could carry special weight in the state. Arizona and its Republican Party have been torn apart by a fight over false claims that Arizona's election was won by Joseph R. Biden Jr. due to fraud.
jesse mckinley Contributed to the report.
