Murder of Imette St. Guillen

Imette Carmella St. Guillen was a graduate student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, studying criminal justice. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, she had graduated magna cum laude from George Washington University in 2003 and was ranked in the top 5% of her class at John Jay, scheduled to graduate in May 2006.

On February 24, 2006, St. Guillen went out with her best friend Claire Higgins to celebrate her upcoming birthday. Around 3:30 a.m. on February 25, the two argued over whether to leave a nightclub; Higgins departed, and St. Guillen assured her by phone at 3:50 a.m. that she would soon head home. She was last seen alive around 4:00 a.m. at a bar called The Falls. Seventeen hours later, police in Brooklyn received an anonymous call reporting a body on Fountain Avenue in Spring Creek Park. The body, later identified as St. Guillen's, was nude and wrapped in a comforter, with bound hands and feet, a sock forced into her throat, and her head wrapped in packing tape. An autopsy determined she had been beaten and sexually assaulted before being asphyxiated. The case was investigated by the NYPD's Special Victims Squad and Brooklyn North Homicide Squad.

Darryl Littlejohn, one of two bouncers working at The Falls that night, was identified as a suspect after DNA matching his profile, likely from a nosebleed, was found in blood on plastic ties used to bind St. Guillen. Carpet fibers from his apartment matched fibers on the tape wrapping her head, and cell phone tower records indicated his movement from his home toward the area in Brooklyn where the body was found. Littlejohn, an ex-convict with a prior 12-year prison term for drug and robbery offenses, was on parole and violating its curfew terms by working late at the bar. He was first held for the parole violation and later charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping, and unlawful imprisonment. He was separately convicted in January 2009 of a related October 2005 kidnapping attempt against college student Shanai Woodard, receiving a sentence of 25 years to life.

Littlejohn's murder trial began with opening statements on May 11, 2009. Prosecutors presented DNA, fiber, and cell-tower evidence, along with testimony from Woodard and another woman who described a similar prior assault. Defense attorney Joyce David argued that Littlejohn had been framed to protect Falls bar manager Daniel Dorrian, who admitted at trial to initially lying to police about St. Guillen's presence at the bar. On May 28, 2009, after prosecutors rested, and following defense testimony challenging the search of Littlejohn's residence, the jury deliberated less than seven hours and convicted Littlejohn of first-degree murder. Judge Abraham G. Gerges sentenced him to life without parole, to run consecutively with his prior kidnapping sentence, calling him an unrepentant "predator."

The case, along with the later murder of Jennifer Moore, prompted New York City and Boston to enact laws in 2007 requiring background checks for bouncers and enhanced nightclub security measures. Scholarships in St. Guillen's name were established at John Jay College and Boston Latin School. Her family later settled a civil suit against The Falls bar and a separate claim against the federal government over parole supervision failures.