The New York Metropolis man charged with killing a senior Queens couple after which setting their home on fireplace throughout a horrific house invasion in September had additionally tried to empty their financial institution accounts earlier than utilizing their bank cards to go on a purchasing spree, prosecutors mentioned Tuesday.
Jamel McGriff, a serial theft suspect on parole, pleaded not responsible Tuesday to a number of counts of homicide, kidnapping and arson, in line with Queens District Lawyer Melinda Katz’s workplace.
The 42-year-old Bronx resident is charged within the Sept. 8 killings of Frank Olton, 76, and Maureen Olton, 77, of their house within the New York Metropolis borough of Queens.
Prosecutors say McGriff had been going door-to-door asking residents if he might are available in to cost his cellphone. They are saying he spoke with Frank Olton, who had supplied to assist, earlier than McGriff pressured his means into the couple’s house, the place he remained for almost 5 hours.
Firefighters responding to a report of a home fireplace discovered Frank Olton’s physique within the basement tied to a pole and with a number of stab wounds to his neck and chest. Maureen Olton’s badly burned physique was present in the lounge.
Prosecutors in courtroom Tuesday mentioned McGriff had set the home on fireplace in an try and destroy proof of the killings, the Each day Information experiences. They mentioned Maureen Olton seems to have been tied to a chair and strangled to loss of life.
Prosecutors mentioned McGriff additionally unsuccessfully tried to switch greater than $10,000 from the couple’s accounts to his personal.
He took the couple’s bank cards as nicely, spending almost $800 on garments at a Macy’s in midtown Manhattan simply hours after the killings, they mentioned. McGriff was caught the next day after going to a film in Instances Sq., prosecutors mentioned in courtroom Tuesday, the Each day Information experiences.
The convicted felon, who was on parole after serving 16 years in jail, was ordered held till his subsequent courtroom date on Nov. 12. If convicted, McGriff faces a most sentence of life in jail with out the opportunity of parole.
The Authorized Assist Society, which is representing McGriff, mentioned in a press release Tuesday that it’s within the early phases of investigating the case and urged the general public “not to attract any conclusions till all of the info are recognized.”
