Judge sticks it to NYC prosecutors and refuses to send Soho hotel murder suspect back to Big Apple to face murder charges after Arizona DA feared Alvin Bragg would let accused killer walk

An Arizona judge has refused to send the Soho hotel murder suspect to the Big Apple to face murder charges over the gruesome hotel slaying.

On Monday, Justice Commissioner Barbara Spencer said Raas Almansoori, 26, will remain in Arizona to stand trial for the attempted murders of the two women he allegedly stabbed after fleeing New York. He is currently being held without bond.

He is also charged with the murder of Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, who was found beaten to death at the SoHo 54 hotel in New York City on February 8.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had hoped Almansoori would be returned to the Big Apple, but Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell has insisted the criminal remain in her jurisdiction.

She ripped into Bragg and his lax bail policies by explaining why she didn’t want the suspect extradited despite the most serious charges.

“The local charges must be resolved according to the law before anything can happen to your case in New York,” Spencer said Monday.

Although Bragg didn’t get his way, he still has the chance to ask Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, a fellow Democrat, to get involved and possibly reverse the decision.

Amansoori’s fate has sparked a political battle between the two states after Mitchell said she would not return him to New York for trial.

“After seeing the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by the Manhattan District Attorney there, Alvin Bragg, I think it is safer to keep him here and keep him in custody so he can do this too.” cannot do to individuals in our state. county or anywhere in the United States,” she said.

A spokeswoman for Bragg said it is “deeply disturbing” that Mitchell is “playing political games in a murder investigation.”

“New York’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.

“It is a slap in the face to them and to the victim in our case to refuse to allow us to seek justice and full accountability for the death of a New Yorker.”

Almansoori was caught on surveillance footage leaving the Soho 54 Hotel wearing Oleas-Arancibia’s catsuit on a well-lit Manhattan street after allegedly leaving his own blood-soaked pants at the scene, police said.

The suspect then left town and made his way to Arizona, where he was accused of stabbing a woman in her car in Phoenix the day before stabbing an 18-year-old woman in the neck multiple times in a McDonald’s restroom. a nearby town.

Arizona Detective Jeremy Goebel told the court that Almansoori allegedly followed the 18-year-old victim into the McDonald’s bathroom, crawled under the door to her stall before pepper-spraying her and stabbing her in the neck as she screamed.

She later described him as having “evil eyes.”

The officer said Almansoori had also discussed a plan to kill his father and stepmother and burn down their house.

Almansoori was soon found and pulled from a stolen vehicle and arrested at gunpoint in a Phoenix car garage on February 18.

On February 27, he appeared at a detention hearing where he went into “graphic detail” about how he gruesomely murdered Oleas-Arancibia.

Arizona State Police Detective Jeremy Goebel said Amansoori described how he began choking her after an argument broke out over how long he could stay.

“In his words, ‘She just didn’t want to die,’” the court heard.

When the strangling didn’t work, Amansoori turned her head from side to side in an attempt to break her neck, before hitting her with an iron.

According to Goebel, she was already dying from her injuries when he tried to suffocate her with a sock and blanket.

“No woman on this planet likes me, so I was very upset,” he told the officer.

Oleas-Arancibia’s body was found on the morning of February 8, and four days later Almansoori was said to have flown back to Arizona from Newark, New Jersey.

At a press conference in February, the NYPD revealed that Almansoori was out on bail at the time of the murder for attacking and sexually assaulting another woman in Florida in April 2023.

Leah Palian, 26, says Almansoori, 26, held her captive in her Orlando, Florida, home before choking her and sexually assaulting her.

‘I hate that I have to do this. I hate that I have to kill you,” Almansoori reportedly told Palian during the terrifying ordeal.

Alamsoori was arrested but released on $2,500 bail in September last year.

“Despite my chilling warning to the Florida State Attorney that his actions were indicative of a potential serial killer, they callously released him and dropped all but one charge (car theft),” Palian wrote on Facebook.

“The blood of an innocent mother stains their hands. Florida’s justice system not only failed me, but turned a blind eye to the imminent danger he posed to countless other women.”

He was also charged with theft, assault, theft and criminal damage in the separate Phoenix investigation.

On Tuesday, he was charged in Arizona in the stabbings on two counts of attempted first-degree murder for each victim, along with aggravated assault, attempted assault, attempted armed robbery and theft of transportation.