A judge today sentenced 41-year-old bouncer Darryl Littlejohn to life in prison without parole after being convicted last month of the rape and murder of graduate student Imette St. Guillen. Littlejohn did not speak on his own behalf and NY1 says he showed no visible sign of remorse. Defense attorneys say they plan to appeal after trying to peg the murder on Danny Dorian, the manager of the club Littlejohn met and left with St. Guillen from. Today the judge "chastised workers of (The Falls) and asked how they could show such indifference." Before the sentence, St. Guillen's mother read a letter from her daughter about her life in New York and her sister told the court, "I understand there is no punishment that will bring Imette back and that is why there is never closure." Littlejohn will serve the sentence consecutively along with 25 years he received for another kidnapping and assault of a Queens woman. more ›

The mother of Imette St. Guillen is speaking out for the first time since bouncer Darryl Littlejohn was convicted of the rape and murder of her daughter earlier this week. 63-year-old Maureen St. Guillen said that despite her gratitude at the jury's decision, she doesn't believe in closure and said that "the wounds are open for life." She says that while she attended almost all of Littlejohn's trial, Mrs. St. Guillen could not bear to come in on days in which the gruesome details of Imette's murder were recounted. She told the News, "I think about Imette every minute of every day. Sometimes you see a person who looks like her. Her hair, her body shape, that long dark straight hair." St. Guillen also shared with the paper that she now always wears a heart locket with Imette's ashes inside; she also travels with an urn that has both the ashes of her daughter mixed with those of her late husband inside. more ›

Now that a jury has found Darryl Littlejohn guilty for the murder of John Jay graduate student Imette St. Guillen, St. Guillen's family is working on their civil suit against the bouncer. And the NY Post reports that Littlejohn stands to inherit $750,000 from his late mother's estate. Initially, when St. Guillen's lawyer Joseph Tacopina did a search in 2006, Littlejohn, an ex-con, had no money to his name. But this past April, Queens Probate Court filings showed that Littlejohn's mother left two homes, one in Queens and one in South Carolina. Tacopina said he would file for a lien on the estate, "We did not expect this was going to happen. But we had our eyes on any court decisions in his name...We want to get [the money] in the hands of the Spirit of Imette Foundation." Lawyers for Littlejohn, who faces life in prison for the murder, say they plan to appeal. more ›

As the defense vowed to continue their fight another day, the mother of Imette St. Guillen wept with joy and expressed gratitude to the jury who quickly delivered a guilty verdict against Darryl Littlejohn for the rape and murder of her daughter. Outside the courtroom where the bouncer was convicted yesterday, Maureen St. Guillen said, "With Imette's death, all of our lives are forever darkened. A little piece of us died with her. Her love and caring for others was never-ending." more ›

Yesterday, defense lawyers for Darryl Littlejohn, a bar bouncer accused of murdering a John Jay College student in 2006, rested their case. Yesterday, those lawyers put two police detectives on the stand: One said that while numerous items were taken from Littlejohn's Queens apartment, none "were ever linked to [murder victim Imette] St. Guillen and DNA testing failed to yield a match," while the other said that few items from the bar where Littlejohn worked— and where St. Guillen was last scene—were taken as evidence. Littlejohn's defense has suggested that the police should have paid more attention to bar owner Danny Dorrian. Littlejohn has already been convicted and sentenced to 25 years in the kidnapping of a Queens woman in 2005; he is also suspected in a kidnapping and rape that is very similar to St. Guillen's attack. Closing arguments are expected today and the jury will likely get the case shortly afterward. more ›

Yesterday, a woman described a rape and attack very similar to how John Jay College student Imette St. Guillen was attacked. St. Guillen was found dead in 2006, and a bouncer at the bar she was last seen, Darryl Littlejohn, is on trial for her murder. While the woman was unable to pick out Littlejohn in a lineup, a judge allowed her to testify because the attack was so similar to St. Guillen's and another woman's. The Daily News reports that the woman described being "snatched off" Queens Boulevard, and then "the attacker handcuffed her and bundled her into a car," threatening her with a gun. "Warning her to shut up, the attacker drove her to a bedroom that sounded similar to Littlejohn's basement apartment in his mother's Jamaica home. The attacker taped a knit cap over her eyes - a key detail because Littlejohn allegedly taped over St. Guillen's eyes." After raping her, her attacker "forced her to clean up and change into shorts and a T-shirt," which had LIttlejohn's mother's DNA on it. more ›

Yesterday, a young woman told a Brooklyn jury that seeing media coverage of a man suspected of killing Imette St. Guillen helped her realize it was the same man who tried to kidnap her months earlier. Shanai Woodard said, "I was watching the news with my mother and I saw a picture of the van come across the screen. I started freaking out really bad. 'Mom, that was the van I was in. I know it is.'" Littlejohn is on trial for St. Guillen's murder, which took place in February 2006, but earlier this year, Darryl Littlejohn was convicted and sentenced for 25 years for trying to kidnap Woodard in October 2005. Littlejohn had grabbed Woodard off a Queens street, threw her into his van, and "punched [her] in the head two to three times." Woodard, who was also bound, eventually escaped the moving van and managed to find help. The Daily News explains that the judge allowed Woodard's testimony was allowed because the "similarities - a young woman abducted, hands bound behind, hit in the head and her eyes covered - were striking enough to let the jurors hear." more ›

Danny Dorrian, the former manager of downtown bar The Falls, was hammered on the witness stand by defense lawyers representing his former employee, Darryl Littlejohn. Littlejohn is on trial for the murder of Imette St. Guillen, last seen at The Falls on February 25, 2006. more ›

Danny Dorrian, who owned downtown bar The Falls, the last place 24-year-old John Jay College grad student Imette St. Guillen was seen, testified that he lied to police who were investigating St. Guillen's murder because he remembered how his family was treated during the Preppy Murder: "I could just imagine the repercussions it would set off -- lawsuits, police, bad press. If I pretended it didn't happen, maybe it wouldn't be true. I didn't believe it was true." more ›

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. more ›

Three years after the murder of Imette St.Guillen, jury selection was supposed to have started yesterday in the trial of suspect Darryl Littlejohn. Littlejohn, an ex-con, was a bouncer at the bar St. Guillen was last seen at. However, selection was delayed until next month because of issues with the DNA evidence prosecutors say links Littlejohn to the crime. Last week, the Daily News reported that Littlejohn's mother's hair was found on the blanket that the John Jay College grad student was wrapped in, but then the News reported yesterday that the DNA of Littlejohn's brother—who died in 1994—may have found on the blanket, which was not made until 1998. Littlejohn's defense lawyer suggests the evidence was tampered, "The evidence itself, the plastic ties, the quilt, the snow brush, were moved from lab to lab. They were transported by detectives involved in the case. At any point in time the evidence could have been tampered with," a claim the police deny. Additionally, the defense also says the police never took voice samples of bar owner Dan Dorrian "to compare it to that of an anonymous 911 call Feb. 25, 2006, directing police to the location of St. Guillen's body." more ›

Queens Supreme Court Judge Gregory Lasak called Darryl Littlejohn a "typical, classic sociopath," and told him, "You act one way here and another way on the street. That makes you a very dangerous man," ultimately sentencing him to 25 years to life in prison. Littlejohn, who is awaiting trial for the 2006 murder of John Jay graduate student Imette St. Guillen, was found guilty for the 2005 kidnapping of a young woman. Lasak said of the crime, "It was every little girl's nightmare in this city. It was every parent's nightmare - walking home from York College and winding up on the floor of a van." Littlejohn's attorney said his client was, in fact, a victim, since his name was already associated with the St. Guillen murder. more ›

Darryl Littlejohn, who will be on trial for the 2006 murder of graduate student Imette St. Guillen later this year, was found guilty in an unrelated kidnapping case. In October 2005, Littlejohn apparently "posed as a police officer and handcuffed [a] York College student," according to the NY Times. The victim, Shanai Woodward, was forced into a van but she escaped; she later testified that she was afraid he would kill her. Investigators revealed her DNA was found in his van, which apparently convinced jurors. Littlejohn's defense is planning an appeal, claiming the St. Guillen case may have influenced jurors. more ›

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. more ›

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 trial moving. more ›

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. more ›

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 had been brutally raped and suffocated to death with a tube sock stuffed down her throat. Littlejohn was arrested and indicted after carpet fibers found on the packing tape that bound St. Guillen matched carpeting in Littlejohn's home. more ›

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. more ›

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: more ›

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. more ›

Happy Halloween! Photo by Johnny Pants - tags your Halloween pictures "gothamist" so we can see them! more ›

- Nice shot. more ›

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 or bartender could have a criminal record?). The legislation would give the police and Department of Consumer Affairs the power to shut down an establishment with unlicensed bouncers or bouncers with records; the NYPD is also looking to define a guard as "anyone who might be called upon to break up a fight, such as a host or hostess, and making bar owners keep detailed records of who is on duty at any given time." more ›

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. more ›

- Strange murder at 14th Street and 10th Avenue - man was shot in his car, and a passenger drove all the way to Brooklyn for a hospital, even though there's St. Vincent's right on 7th Avenue and 12th Street, not to mention other Manhattan hospitals, on the way more ›

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 the handcuff DNA to Littlejohn's DNA which had been in the system for years. The Daily News details the victim's ordeal (suggesting she could have been the first Imette) and how the Queens DA built the case. more ›

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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. more ›

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." more ›

As expected Darryl Littlejohn has been indicted for first-degree murder in the killing of Imette St. Guillen. more ›