Ex-Con's Home Searched In Student Slay

New York detectives searched the Queens home of a bouncer at the Manhattan bar where slain graduate student Imette St. Guillen was last seen alive, WCBS reporter Ti-Hua Chang reports.

Police say the bouncer, identified in reports as 41-year-old Darryl Littlejohn, is a parolee with convictions for armed robbery, gun possession and drugs under multiple names — but no record of sex crimes. Police confirm that Littlejohn is a potential suspect but said he was not under arrest.

Based on a tip, investigators began questioning the bouncer and scouring the two-story building housing The Falls bar for evidence. The New York Post reports that cops discovered tape and wires similar to those found on St. Guillen's body in the bar's basement. Detectives also found plastic ties that match the ones that were used to bind her wrists and ankles, according to The New York Times.

"If Littlejohn's DNA is there, he's nailed," criminal profiler Pat Brown told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. "If it's not, they'll have more trouble. They'll have to come up with enough circumstantial evidence in his car and his home to nail him."

The bouncer was the only bar employee who did not voluntarily submit to DNA testing, Chang reports, but his DNA is on record from previous crimes.

The Post reports that police began questioning Littlejohn after The Falls owner, Michael J. Dorrian, told police that he had ordered Littlejohn to "Get her out of here!" because St. Guillen was so drunk at the end of that night.

Dorrian told cops that Littlejohn hauled St. Guillen out a side door of the building at 218 Lafayette St., the Post reports. Dorrian and an unidentified bartender said that moments later, they heard arguing in a hallway just outside a door to the bar, the sources said. They then heard a scream from the same direction.

Crime scene unit detectives, dressed in white coveralls, also searched the yellow house on 121st Avenue, which is owned by Mr. Littlejohn's mother, Lucille Harris, according to The New York Times. The detectives were looking for evidence that might indicate St. Guillen was at the house in the hours after she disappeared.

Littlejohn's aunt, Addie Harris, who lives with Littlejohn, said the warrant for the Queens home targeted the basement, first floor and driveway of the two-story building. Cops were hunting for blood, sand, hair and DNA evidence, Harris told The Daily News. Police tell Chang a cat is significant because feline hair was found on the bedspread used to wrap St. Guillen's body.

However, the warrant did not let cops search the blue van in the driveway, which belongs to Littlejohn's mother, Harris said. Sources tell The Daily News that the bouncer was spotted sitting in a van outside the SoHo bar talking with the student as she stood on the sidewalk in the last moments she was seen alive.

Littlejohn's aunt said outside the home she didn't think her nephew was involved in St. Guillen's killing.

"I pray that it wasn't him. The young lady was somebody's daughter, somebody's sister," said Harris.

For 24 hours detectives continued to grill the bouncer at a Brooklyn police station, before he asked for a legal aid attorney and tried to leave, Chang reports. But police learned the bouncer violated his parole, which included house curfew after 7 p.m., so they were able to hold him.

Cell phone records showed Littlejohn was at home about 5 p.m., according to newspaper reports. The records also place him at 6 p.m. within a mile of where St. Guillen's body was dumped in a deserted area off the Belt Parkway, the sources said. Her body was found at about 8:40 p.m. after an anonymous male tipster made a 911 call from a diner in the area.

Littlejohn, who has been in and out of prison for 20 years, has used a different alias for nearly every crime. Two names he went by were "John Handsome" and "Jonathan Blaze," which also is the secret identity of comic book character "Ghost Rider," according to newspaper reports. He was sentenced to 8½ to 10 years for a 1995 Long Island bank robbery.

The state Parole Board denied his release in May 2004.

"Your violent and out-of-control behavior shows you to be a menace to society," the board found. "Your continued incarceration remains in the best interest of society."

"The No. 1 job of serial killers is security. Yes, I would be looking at this guy very carefully for those reasons," Brown told The Early Show. "When you're going out to car at night, the last person you want to walk you to your car is a security guard."

St. Guillen had been set to graduate this semester from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. She graduated with honors from George Washington University in Washington.

She was buried over the weekend outside of Boston where her family lives. Friends and relatives at her funeral on Saturday remembered her for her infectious smile, bold confidence, love of board games and penchant for high heels.

"She was kind, she was loving and she wouldn't hurt anyone," her mother, Maureen, said Tuesday outside her home.

St. Guillen's family has appealed for the public's help in finding the killer. Police say anyone with information about St. Guillen should call 1-800-577-TIPS.