Suspect in killing of elderly NYC couple also tried to drain bank accounts
NEW YORK– NEW YORK (AP) — The New York man accused of killing an elderly couple and then burning down their home in a gruesome home invasion last month also tried to empty their bank accounts before using their credit cards to go shopping, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Jamel McGriff, a serial theft suspect on parole, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to multiple counts of murder, kidnapping and arson, according to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz’s office.
The 42-year-old Bronx resident is charged with the September 8 murders of Frank Olton, 76, and Maureen Olton, 77, in their home in the Queens borough of New York.
Prosecutors say McGriff went door to door asking residents if he could come charge his cell phone. They say he spoke with Frank Olton, who had offered to help, before McGriff forced his way into the couple’s home, where he stayed for nearly five hours.
Firefighters responding to a report of a house fire found the body of Frank Olton in the basement, tied to a pole and with multiple stab wounds to his neck and chest. Maureen Olton’s badly burned body was found in the living room.
Court prosecutors said Tuesday that McGriff set the house on fire in an attempt to destroy evidence of the murders, the Daily News reports. They said Maureen Olton appeared to have been tied to a chair and strangled to death.
Prosecutors said McGriff also unsuccessfully tried to transfer more than $10,000 from the couple’s accounts to his own.
He also took the couple’s credit cards, spending nearly $800 on clothes at a Macy’s in midtown Manhattan just hours after the killings, they said. McGriff was arrested the next day after going to see a movie in Times Square, prosecutors said in court Tuesday, the Daily News reports.
The convicted felon, who was on parole after serving 16 years in prison, was ordered to be detained until his next court appearance on November 12. If convicted, McGriff faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The Legal Aid Society, which represents McGriff, said in a statement Tuesday that it was in the early stages of investigating the case and urged the public “not to draw any conclusions until all the facts are known.”
