Imette St. Guillen Murder Trial Finally Starts

Yesterday, a downtown nightclub bouncer went on trial for the 2006 murder of a John Jay College graduate student. Imette St. Guillen's naked body was found off the Belt Parkway, bound and wrapped in a floral blanket shortly after she was missing. Prosecutors said in their opening that the DNA of Darryl Littlejohn, the bouncer last seen kicking her out of a bar, was found on ties around her wrists and that the blanket had traces of his mother's and brother's DNA. However, the defense proposed that Littlejohn was framed and suggested the bar's owner was the real killer.

St. Guillen, 24, had been out at bars with friends on February 25, 2006. Her friend Claire Higgins testified that she initially convinced St. Guillen to go home, but St. Guillen changed her mind, "Imette said, 'You know, I'm not going to come with you, after all. So I got out of the cab, and we continued to argue on the street about whether she would leave with me or continue being out." They parted ways, Higgins going home and St. Guillen eventually finding her way to The Falls, a bar on Lafayette Street. Near closing time, bar owner Danny Dorrian, whose family is politically connected, asked Littlejohn to escort St. Guillen out. The next day, an anonymous tip led the police to her body in Brooklyn.

Littlejohn's defense lawyer Joyce David pointed out that Dorrian hindered the police investigation, changed his story, and hired lawyers though he was only being questioned as a witness, "The family is rich, and they're powerful, and they're connected all the way up. Their connections are what helped Dan Dorrian avoid justice in this case." (Back in 2006, the Daily News noted how Dorrian's lawyer was a founding partner of Giuliani's law firm; Dorrian's sister is married to a Giuliani adviser.) David added that Littlejohn was a "patsy"—"He's a black man with a long criminal record. Who's going to care about him?" (Last year, Higgins told the Post that Dorrian's reaction to the murder was, "New York can be a tough town.") Earlier this year, Littlejohn was sentenced to 25 years in the attempted kidnapping of a Queens college student.

St. Guillen's mother was present in court; the Daily News reports, "Her mom wept and handed out tissues to friends and relatives who broke down as prosecutors detailed the slaying." The Post adds that her mother and sister went outside the courtroom when the prosecutors showed photographs of what the police found.