Somehow, the NY Post has obtained police interviews with Claire Higgins, the best friend of John Jay College graduate student Imette St. Guillen, whose brutal 2006 murder shocked the city. Around 11 p.m. on the night of February 24, 2006, Higgins and St. Guillen headed from Higgins's Morningside Heights apartment to the Pioneer Bar. In the middle of their time there, Higgins recalled that St. Guillen had about four or five rum and Cokes: "We......

The Brooklyn judge presiding over the case of Darryl Littlejohn, the suspected murderer of John Jay graduate student Imette St. Guillen, wants the trial to start as early as next January, even as Littlejohn is facing unrelated charges of kidnapping in a Queens courtroom. Judge Cheryl Chambers ordered another pretrial hearing for October 11 and wants both the defense and prosecution to come to a mutually agreeable date upon which they can get the murder......

Cellphone records won out in court over the testimony of an eyewitness to murder and charges. The New York Times reports that prosecutors dismissed murder charges against 36-year-old Eric Wright in large part because his cellphone indicated he was nowhere near the killing and conceded that there was reasonable doubt he was not guilty. When Tyrell Pope was killed in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn in July 2006, it didn't take long for......

The New York Post reports that concerns have been raised about a possible lack of strength in the murder case against former bar bouncer Darryl Littlejohn, who was indicted for the abduction and killing of grad student Imette St. Guillen 18 months ago. The victim disappeared from the SoHo bar The Falls after a night of drinking, and her body was found the next day dumped alongside a road in Brooklyn. Police say that she......

Since cellphone technology is just about commonplace there days, the police and prosecutors are relying on cellphone data to help build cases against suspected criminals. The NY Times looks at how more and more cases seems to involve cellphone data. The data, collected from transmission towers, can help suggest where a suspect is during the time of a crime. The Times leads with an example from the trial of Paul Cortez, accused of killing his......

They say New York is home to a million stories, and so far this year, we've published 7021 of them here on Gothamist. So in case you missed any of those, let's take a little stroll back in time, and review the most significant stories the past 12 months, shall we? Here's part one of a semi-chronological look at 2006; part two will go up tomorrow: Nixzmary Brown and the Problem with the Administration for......

If you've ever wondered how some big-name lawyers get attached to high-profile defendants without money, check out the NY Times article about lawyers jockeying to defend Darryl Littlejohn. Littlejohn, the bouncer of former SoHo bar and restaurant The Fall, is accused of murdering John Jay graduate student Imette St. Guillen, whose body was found late February off the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn, bound and wrapped in a blanket. St. Guillen's murder caused fears that a......

More pictures from the puzzling Black Label Bike Kill 4. It seems to have something to do with marauding hipsters. The High Line looks clean as a whistle as park construction is slated to begin. [Via Curbed]. The award for best Halloween guerilla marketing goes to Jack Spade, who arranged to have their SoHo store egged by cute little kids in costume. Ok, maybe not. Ghostbusting in NYC is a little less glamorous than......

- New York State is trying to cut down on pirated CDs by reducing the number of discs that constitute a felony from 1,000 to 100. - We feel ill just thinking about eating 26 cannolis in an hour! - The truth comes out about the first immigrant to to be processed on Ellis Island. - On the same morning that Karen Ann Allende was supposed to meet with the cops about her ex-husband,......

As the city examines how to regulate bouncers, the NYPD revealed that it found 41 "unlicensed security guards" working at 42 bars last weekend. And some of the bouncers had "previous arrest records for everything from rape to illegal gun possession and drug charges," according to the Post. The City Council has been holding hearings about tougher regulation, and bar owners are cooperative, but want regulations to apply to security personnel only (so a server......

Today, John Jay College of Criminal Justice masters student Johanna King Vespe will receive the first Imette St. Guillen Scholarship. The fund was created in honor of St. Guillen after her February murder. According to the Daily News, which donated money to the fund, more than $250,000 has been raised. Darryl Littlejohn, a bouncer at The Falls (the bar and restaurant where St. Guillen was last seen alive), was indicted for St. Guillen's murder. Here's......

- Imette St. Guillen's family will sue The Falls, the bar where St. Guillen met her alleged killer, and various federal and state agencies that should have been watching over ex-con turned bouncer Darryl Littlejohn - The Daily Politics posts Ed Koch's review of Giliuani Time, and here's a snippet: "I am in the film, and if I do say so myself, my comments are pretty interesting. I describe Giuliani as either in the......

Yesterday, the Queens DA's office arraigned Darryl Littlejohn, the ex-con bouncer suspected of mudering grad student Imette St. Guillen in February, in the kidnapping and assault of a 19 year old in Queens last October (the woman got away). Littlejohn pleaded not guilty in the crime (the Post says he scowled), in which the handcuffs he allegedly used still had traces of his DNA. However, his lawyer questions why it took so long to trace......

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The NYPD has some bad news for Darryl Littlejohn, it seems. A month ago Littlejohn, who has been charged with the murder off Imette St. Guillen, was put in a line-up for a rape case in Queens. When he was not identified, it looked like that part of the story might've been left aside. But apparently not so much. Today the Daily News is reporting that "a DNA match has linked Darryl Littlejohn to the......

Whoa! Someone has created a website to support Darryl Littlejohn, the chief suspect in the Imette St. Guillen rape and murder case. It's up at DarrylLittlejohn.com, and includes a list of reasons why Littlejohn might be innocent, a poll, and clock recording the number of days of his "false imprisonment." Related: the Post has a good run-down of the papers released by prosecutors yesterday. They contained transcripts of a number of conversations between Littlejohn and......

As expected Darryl Littlejohn has been indicted for first-degree murder in the killing of Imette St. Guillen. On a CBS interview last night Littlejohn emphasized his innocence, saying that he had escorted St. Guillen from the Falls because it was closing time. He did not say what happened after that, but said that the police had focused on him because of his past. "I'm a likely suspect because I have a criminal background and......

This just in off the wires-- Darryl Littlejohn has been indicted by a Brooklyn Grand Jury in the murder of grad student Imette St. Guillen. The grand jury met for a week before issuing the indictment. UPDATE: NY1 is saying they handed down a FIRST degree murder indictment. UPDATE: WNBC is saying that the indictment is still officially under seal, and will be announced tomorrow. CNN is going through the evidence-- his blood on......

The Brooklyn grand jury is still hearing evidence for the Imette St. Guillen murder, with prosecutors looking for an indictment against Darryl Littlejohn, a bouncer at the Falls, which is the last place St. Guillen was seen. The Post says that the DNA evidence that links Littlejohn to ties found around St. Guillen's hands will be presented today. Gothamist found it interesting that the Post described that evidence as cracking the case "wide open," since......

There's a good look at how cellphone triangulation works in the Daily News today, in relation to how police were able to determine that the Imette St. Guillen murder's "prime suspect" Darryl Littlejohn was in the vicinity of where her body was eventually found. We'd been curious about how the technology works (sure, we'd seen it "used" in TV shows or mentioned and got the basic idea), but we didn't realize locations can be determined......

While the police touted the DNA evidence found on plastic ties (originally used on computer equipment) links Falls bouncer Darryl Littlejohn to the murder of Imette St. Guillen, the police's case may not be that strong. The NY Times reports that the police are still gathering evidence for the case where most of the evidence is circumstantial - even though there has been a lot of to examine. The Post looks at how the blood......

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly decided to put a rest to many leaks and give the news himself: Blood found on ties that were in binding the hands of murdered graduate student Imette St. Guillen matches the DNA of Falls bouncer Darryl Littlejohn. The Brooklyn DA's office is going for a grand jury indictment this week, and Littlejohn has been in police custody for almost a week for parole violation, which is why the NYPD hasn't......

He's not getting arrested yet, he's already in custody for parole violations after all, but Police Commissioner Ray Kelly just gave a news conference where he called Darryl Littlejohn, in no uncertain terms, the prime suspect in the murder of Imette St. Guillen. Littlejohn's DNA seems to have turned up on some of the ties that were found on her body. This evidence, and more, is being brought before a Grand Jury this week......

"Don't worry, I'll take you home." That's what a 47-year-old homeless man dug up by the Post claims suspect Darryl Littlejohn said as he helped Imette St. Guillen into his van. Miguel Angel Cruz says he had beel sleeping across the street from The Falls when he was awoken by Littlejohn's van pulling up and then watched the bouncer and St. Guillen drive off. Our first reaction to this, and we suspect we're not alone......

The bouncer at the Falls bar and restaurant is still in custody at Rikers for parole violation, as police consider Darryl Littlejohn a "person of interest" in the murder of graduate student Imette St. Guillen. But he was not identified during a line-up for a Queens rape case, leading his lawyer to say his client feels like a scapegoat, and emphasizes he's never been violent towards women. Detectives in Queen and Nassau County had hoped......

- Darryl Littlejohn not ID'd in lineup for an unrelated rape case - Dubai blinks and gives control of the ports to a U.S. company - but some senators may still not be happy - Apply to be a city lifeguard ('a guaranteed way to be in top physical condition while helping to keep millions of New Yorkers safe") - The missing NJ girl who text messaged that she had been abducted has been......

The NYPD's test results on various pieces of evidence in the Imette St. Guillen murder case are starting to emerge - DNA evidence is inconclusive at this point but carpet fibers found in suspect Darryl Littlejohn's home match fibers found on packing tape used to bind St. Guillen. Littlejohn, who was a bouncer at The Falls, the bar St. Guillen was last seen on February 25, still has not been charged in connection to the......

The Falls' bouncer, Darryl Littlejohn, continues to be the center of the police investigation of Imette St. Guillen's murder. In fact, the Daily News says that police consider him their "only suspect." Littlejohn is being held at Rikers Island, but not for anything related to the St. Guillen murder (he's just person a interest, still not arrested or charged) - he's there for violating his parole, as his past crimes have given him a 9PM-7AM......

One of our tipsters sent in this exclusive-- a recent mugshot of Darryl Littlejohn, the suspect in the tragic death of Imette St. Guillen: "this one was taken on 7/23/03 and they are typically taken from time to time by the docs when an inmate is moved to a new facility or if it has been a long time since they have had one taken or if they change their look (there are any......

Scrutiny over the bar and restaurant, The Falls, and one of its bouncers, Darryl Littlejohn, in the murder of graduate student Imette St. Guillen continued, as police extensively searched his home. According to reports, police are trying to compare evidence from where St. Guillen's body was found as well as evidence from The Falls, which included cat hairs (some other hairs were found on the comforter St. Guillen's body was wrapped in). Some of the......