Report: NY Murder Suspect Arrested In NoHo Confessed To Several Other Killings
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – A Brooklyn man suspected of killing a nurse and raping another woman in New York, as well as sexually assaulting and trying to kill a woman in North Hollywood after they went on a date, has confessed to killing as many as six additional victims, according to a New York Daily News report that cites law enforcement sources.
Danueal Drayton, 27, was arrested about 5 p.m. Tuesday by Los Angeles police in North Hollywood after he was tracked there by a joint New York-New Jersey Police Task Force.
The L.A. County District Attorney's Office reported Friday that Drayton sexually assaulted and tried to kill a 28-year-old woman in her North Hollywood apartment.
According to prosecutors, on July 22-23, following a date, Drayton sexually assaulted the woman and held her captive in her apartment.
The DA's office has charged Drayton with one count each of attempted murder, rape, false imprisonment by violence and sexual penetration by a foreign object. He is scheduled to be arraigned in L.A. County Superior Court Monday. He is being held on $1.5 million bail.
Drayton is also wanted in New York in connection with the killing of nurse Samantha Stewart, who was found dead in her Queens apartment on July 17, as well as the rape earlier this month of a woman in Brooklyn. Stewart, 29, was found dead by her father and brother, and authorities later determined that she had been strangled.
On Friday, the New York Daily News reported that Drayton confessed to committing two murders in Connecticut, one in the Bronx, one in Suffolk County, one in either Queens or Nassau County, and possibly another California homicide, according to a police source.
The source stressed, however, that it was unclear if Drayton was telling the truth about the additional crimes.
"My body did this, not my mind," the paper quoted Drayton as telling investigators. "I didn't want to do this. My body made me do this."
Authorities believe Drayton met both of his New York victims on Tinder and their first meeting was in a public space. They say he also may have used other dating sites to meet potential victims.
"The common denominator in these two cases – one being a murder, one being a rape – is dating websites," NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said this week.
Police say Drayton was well known to police. He was arrested in June for allegedly choking an ex-girlfriend at Inwood Park in Nassau County. One July 1, his bail was set at $1,000. On July 5, a judge dropped the bail requirement, over the objection of the district attorney, and Drayton walked free.
"It would have been impossible for the judge at that time to foresee the allegations that are presently unfolding and coming to light," a Nassau Court spokesman told the Daily News.
He also has five prior arrests in his home state of Connecticut, including a strangulation arrest in 2011.
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