Murder of Imette St. Guillen

Imette St. Guillen was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Seimundo Guillen and Maureen St. Hilaire. Her surname–and that of her elder sister– was a combination of their parents' surnames. Their mother was French Canadian. Their father, Seimundo Guillen, a Venezuelan immigrant, died of AIDS when Imette was nine years old. Her widowed mother later remarried.

On the third anniversary of St. Guillen's death, her mother filed suit against the bounty hunter school, US Recovery Bureau Inc, accusing the proprietors, Ralph Rios and Robert Neves, of giving the accused, Darryl Littlejohn, fake badges that enabled him to get hired as a bouncer. Lastly, the St. Guillen family in March 2011 filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Darryl Littlejohn.

In January 2009, Littlejohn was convicted of kidnapping a college student, Shanai Woodard, in October 2005. The victim testified that he had approached her while dressed as a police officer, handcuffed her, and forced her into a vehicle. She escaped. Littlejohn was sentenced to 25 years-to-life in prison.

Opening arguments were given on May 11, 2009. Prosecution headed by Kenneth Taub laid out the case that Littlejohn was a sex fiend. According to the Daily News, Taub said that "He [Littlejohn] did the same thing to two other women three months before" and "Until this case, he got away with it." They briefly described the circumstantial evidence against Littlejohn. Littlejohn wore glasses in the courtroom. Some defense lawyers have described this as the "nerd defense, which is a tactic used to make felons and other criminals appear less menacing to the jury during a trial."

In 2009 St. Guillen's family settled a confidential suit they brought against The Falls bar in 2007.

In early 2008, St. Guillen's mother brought a civil action against the federal government for US$200 million for their failure to keep track of Littlejohn under his parole. The suit names the Department of Justice, and the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services Program as defendants. The suit was dismissed in May 2010 by Court of Claims Judge Faviola A. Soto, quoting an NYS Appeals decision that reaffirmed the standard that, "an agency of government is not liable for the negligent performance of a governmental function unless there existed 'a special duty to the injured person, in contrast to a general duty owed to the public.'" In March 2011, the St. Guillen family settled with the Federal government for $130,000. Tracking software for post-release offenders was later named after St. Guillen.

Littlejohn went on trial in 2007 for the 2005 abduction, which was held before the murder trial for St. Guillen. Observers were concerned that this suggested that St. Guillen's murder case was not strong enough. Prosecution, however, stated that they were prepared to proceed with the murder trial.

Pre-trial hearings began on September 11, 2007. In January 2008, the judge assigned to St. Guillen's murder case, Cheryl Chambers, was reassigned to the state's Appellate Division. Littlejohn's defense attorney Joyce David challenged the autopsy findings as well as the search warrants giving police the authority to search Littlejohn's van, his apartment, and to investigate his cell phone records. Prosecutors were given permission by Justice Abraham Gerges to admit evidence from Littlejohn's other crimes.

Soon after authorities realized that a bouncer may have been the perpetrator, nightclub owners and local politicians met to discuss ways to improve nightlife safety. In February 2007, New York City enacted a law requiring enhanced security and bouncer vetting. New York City club owners also agreed to voluntary guidelines which encourage the use of scanning machines to record the identification of their patrons and also encourage screening patrons for weapons. The guidelines provide for more care in dealing with intoxicated female patrons who are alone. The following month, Boston enacted a similar law, and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino signed an executive order authorizing the cancellation of liquor licenses granted to anyone found to have hired a violent felon.

After celebrating her upcoming birthday with her mother and sister in Florida, St. Guillen took a plane back to New York. On February 24, 2006, St. Guillen met with her best friend Claire Higgins to continue celebrating her birthday, a few days away. Out at a nightclub around 3:30 a.m. on February 25, the two women argued over whether to go home. Higgins left; later, in a 3:50 a.m. phone call, St. Guillen assured Higgins that she would soon be leaving for home. She was last seen at 4:00 a.m at a bar named 'The Falls'.

During the investigation, there were revelations that The Falls bar manager, Daniel Dorrian, had allegedly lied about elements of St. Guillen's disappearance and murder. Jeff Ragsdale, a New York City writer, organized a group of people through Craigslist to start a protest demonstration in front of The Falls bar. The demonstrations lasted a few months, and around June 2006 The Falls bar lost its liquor license. The Pioneer bar was associated with the disappearance of St. Guillen that night, but it is not related to her murder. Nevertheless, the bar suffered negative publicity, and news reports showed images of its facade in coverage of the murder, leading the bar to change its name to the R Bar.

Littlejohn, an ex-convict, had spent more than 12 years in prison for drug possession and robbery charges. He was on parole at the time of his employment at The Falls and, by working late hours at the bar, was violating the curfew of his parole agreement. While he was initially held by authorities because of the parole violation. He was later charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder for the death of St. Guillen. During that time, Littlejohn was tried and convicted in the attempted abduction of a Queens woman on October 19, 2005; this abduction attempt was later linked to St. Guillen's case, as the woman called police after seeing the suspected van on TV news reports.

According to prosecutors, Littlejohn started his criminal career at age 12, first stealing a 70-year-old woman's purse with the help of a friend. Prosecutors in the 2005 abduction sought court permission to discuss Littlejohn's crimes, and prosecutor Frank DeGaetano said that the crimes "fairly reflect his character." Littlejohn's lawyer wanted discussion of his past banned from the trial.

Prosecutors called several witnesses to testify to previous cases in which Littlejohn was alleged to have abducted young women. Woodard, the victim in the 2005 attack, testified about her kidnapping attempt, and the district attorney who prosecuted him testified about the evidence that had led to his conviction, though Justice Gerges warned jurors should not take Woodard's testimony as proof of Littlejohn's "propensity" to commit such crimes. Prosecutors later called a Japanese woman, also a student, who had been raped four months before St. Guillen's death in a manner similar to Woodard's case. David, who objected to both Woodard's and the Japanese woman's testimonies, verbally attacked the second victim's inability to identify Littlejohn in a lineup. While Littlejohn had not been charged in the Japanese student's attack, prosecutors insisted there was "compelling proof" that he was her attacker. Prosecution rested its case on May 28.

St. Guillen graduated from Boston Latin School in 1999 and moved to Washington, D.C. to attend George Washington University. Like her father, St. Guillen studied criminal justice. She graduated magna cum laude in 2003 and enrolled at John Jay College of Criminal Justice to pursue a master's degree. Although originally intending to study forensic psychology, St. Guillen changed her major to criminal justice. Ranked in the top 5% of her class, she was scheduled to graduate in May 2006.

Imette Carmella St. Guillen (March 2, 1981 – February 25, 2006) was an American graduate student who was brutally raped and murdered in New York City. She was studying criminal justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. Her murder captured national attention; together with the later murder of Jennifer Moore, it was a catalyst for passage of legislation to require background checks of bouncers in bars and a security plan for nightclubs. A bouncer was convicted of St. Guillen's murder.