Alleged sex killer Raad Amansoori boasted to police of the sheer effort involved in murdering a New York prostitute who ‘just wouldn’t die’, a court heard today.
The 26-year-old appeared at a detention hearing in Arizona for the first time since he was pulled from a stolen vehicle and arrested at gunpoint in a Phoenix car garage on February 18.
Details of another three sex attacks have emerged since mother-of-two Denisse Oleas-Arancibia was found beaten to death at New York’s SoHo 54 hotel on February 8.
Arizona police detective Jeremy Goebel said Amansoori went into ‘graphic detail’ about how he began strangling her after an argument erupted over how long he could stay.
‘In his words, ‘She just wouldn’t die’,’ the court heard.
Raad Amansoori, 26, appeared in an Arizona courthouse on Monday charged with the murder of Ecuadorian-born sex worker Denisse Oleas-Arancibia in New York on February 8
Bits of plastic were found embedded in the head of the mother-of-two and a bloody iron was next to her when her body was discovered
Arizona police detective Jeremy Goebel said Amansoori went into ‘graphic detail’ about how he began strangling her after an argument erupted over how long he could stay
When the strangling did not work, Amansoori wrenched her head from side to side in a bid to snap her neck, before battering her with an iron.
She was already dying from her injuries by the time he tried to suffocate with a sock and blanket, according to Goebel.
‘Not a single woman on this planet likes me so I was very upset,’ he told the officer.
The fate of Amansoori has become a political football after Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said she would not send him back to New York for trial.
‘Having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by the Manhattan DA there, Alvin Bragg, I think it’s safer to keep him here and keep him in custody so that he cannot be out doing this to individuals either in our state, county or anywhere in the United States,’ she said.
A spokeswoman for Bragg said it’s ‘deeply disturbing’ that Mitchell is ‘playing political games in a murder investigation’.
‘New York’s murder rate is less than half that of Phoenix, Arizona, because of the hard work of the NYPD and all of our law enforcement partners.
‘It is a slap in the face to them and to the victim in our case to refuse to allow us to seek justice and full accountability for a New Yorker’s death.’
Denisse Oleas-Arancibia is seen with family members in a Facebook photo posted by her son
Surveillance footage of Almansoori caught after the murder of Oleas-Arancibia wearing her leggings along a well-lit Manhattan street
The body of Oleas-Arancibia was found in a room at New York’s SoHo 54 hotel on February 8.
Leah Palian, 26, has revealed that Almansoori held her captive in her Orlando, Florida home before choking and sexually assaulting her in April last year
Arizona police say Almansoori carjacked and stabbed a woman in Phoenix on February 17, before kidnapping and stabbing a McDonald’s employee in nearby Surprise, Arizona, the next day.
Goebel told the court that Almansoori allegedly followed the 18-year-old victim into the McDonald’s bathroom, crawled under the door into her stall before pepper spraying her and stabbing her in the neck as she screamed.
She later described him as having ‘evil eyes’.
The officer said Almansoori had also spoken of a plan to kill his father and stepmother and burn down their house.
At a press conference last week, the NYPD revealed that Almansoori was on bail at the time of the murder for attacking and sexually assaulting another woman in Florida in April 2023.
Leah Palian, 26, says Almansoori, 26, held her captive in her Orlando, Florida home before choking and sexually assaulting her.
‘I hate that I have to do this. I hate that I have to kill you,’ Almansoori reportedly told Palian during the terrifying ordeal.
Alamsoori was arrested but freed on $2,500 bail in September of last year.
‘Despite my chilling warning to the Florida state attorney that his actions were indicative of a potential serial killer, they callously released him, dropping all but one charge (car theft),’ Palian wrote on Facebook.
‘The blood of an innocent mother stains their hands. Florida’s justice system has not only failed me but has turned a blind eye to the impending danger he posed to countless other women.’
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said that Almansoori has an ‘extensive’ out of state arrest history having previously been arrested in Florida, Texas and Arizona.
Surveillance footage of Almansoori on the night of Oleas-Arancibia’s murder showed him wearing her leggings along a well-lit Manhattan street after allegedly leaving his own blood-soaked pants at the scene.
Kenny said that Almansoori had purchased a plane ticket from Florida to New York on January 26.
According to Kenny, he used his credit card usage three days later in the Big Apple and visited an escort in Upper Manhattan on February 6.
The body of Oleas-Arancibia was found on the morning of February 8, and four days later, Almansoori is said to have flown back to Arizona from Newark.
Almansoori was booked into the Maricopa County jail on charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault and theft.
He was also charged with robbery, assault, theft and criminal damage in the separate Phoenix investigation.
The murdered woman’s son Edwin Cevallos said she was ‘always working for us to give us the best life in this country’
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell (pictured) told reporters she’s ordered her staff not to cooperate with plans to send Almansoori, 26, back to New York where he’s wanted for the alleged murder of Oleas-Arancibia, 38
Mitchell said she didn’t trust Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (pictured) to handle ‘violent criminals’ based on his history as her reason for refusing extradition
Kenny added the extradition could take ‘days, weeks, it could be months.’
Following the alleged crime spree, John Kelly, a criminal profiler, told Fox News that he was showing disturbing traits of being a ‘budding serial killer.’
‘It looks like he was on his way, was getting started, so it’s a good thing they got him,’ he said, noting the 26-year-old’s alleged targeting of women and ‘disassociation.’
Maricopa Commissioner Lindsey Coates ruled that Almansoori will remain behind bars without bail due to the danger he poses to the public but insisted she will not intervene in the two over extradition.
‘I am not making a determination about the bail and his eligibility, therefore, based on any information related to a separate proceeding in New York City, it’s a totally separate proceeding,’ she explained.
‘I’m only making a decision about this case today. So that’s my decision about this case.’