Suspect in New York hotel killing remains in custody without bond in Arizona stabbings
PHOENIX — A suspect in the murder of a woman at a New York City hotel was indicted Tuesday by a grand jury in Arizona’s most populous county in the subsequent stabbing attacks on two women in the Phoenix area.
The Maricopa County Prosecutor’s Office announced that 26-year-old Raad Almansoori was charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault and attempted sexual assault, as well as one count each of armed robbery and theft of transportation. The grand jury indictments replace direct charges filed against Almansoori last week.
Almansoori is accused of stabbing an 18-year-old woman in the neck at least three times in the bathroom of a McDonald’s restaurant in Surprise. Phoenix police have also named Almansoori as a suspect in the attack a day earlier on a woman who was stabbed in her car in that city.
The women in both attacks in Arizona survived, but New York police say Almansoori is a suspect in the murder of a woman in that city earlier this month. Denisse Oleas-Arancibia’s body was found by staff on the floor of a hotel room. Officers said her death was determined to be caused by blunt force trauma to the head and a broken iron was found nearby.
The Arizona Republic reported earlier Tuesday that Surprise Police Detective Jeremy Goebel testified during a hearing Monday afternoon that Almansoori told him he wanted to rape and kill sex workers and kill members of his own family.
Goebel also testified that Almansoori described to him how he tried to kill Oleas-Arancibia at the hotel because he thought she was shortchanging him for paid sex in time, choking her, stomping on her head and putting a sock over her head in an attempt to to suffocate. her.
Almansoori’s lawyer Dakota Johnson said his client had previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia and had heard voices in the past.
The Arizona case has sparked a political feud between Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, a Republican, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat.
Mitchell has argued against sending Almonsoori back to New York for prosecution before he is tried in Arizona for the stabbings, suggesting Bragg is lax on crime.
Bragg’s critics have blasted his record for filing charges against former President Donald Trump. He also faced backlash over his office’s decision not to prosecute certain low-level violations.