Pauli
05-25-2008, 05:08 PM
N.Y. car dealer tied suspect to Stepha Henry murder case
Months of gumshoe work, a trip to New York, and a helpful car dealer allowed investigators to link a suspect to evidence in the Stepha Henry murder case.
BY DAVID OVALLE
http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2008/05/23/11/546-Pray00_Stepha_Dade_RRG.embedded.prod_affiliate.56. JPG (http://helpfindthemissing.org/forum/#x)
RONNA GRADUS/MIAMI HERALD STAFF
Jean Richards, left, and Cheryl Greene pray for Stepha Henry and for police to find her killer during a special service at Kendall Seventh Day Adventist Church in 2007.
» More Photos (http://helpfindthemissing.org/forum/#x)
Dec. 24, 2007 | Missing woman's family struggles (http://helpfindthemissing.org/1060/story/543615.html)
Jan. 16, 2008 | Murder charge filed in missing student case (http://helpfindthemissing.org/1060/story/543589.html)
Jan 17, 2008 | Stormy past of murder suspect (http://helpfindthemissing.org/1060/story/543587.html)
Jan. 21, 2008 | Victim's mother clings to hope (http://helpfindthemissing.org/1060/story/543582.html)
Feb. 15, 2008 | Murder suspect fights extradition (http://helpfindthemissing.org/1060/story/543574.html)
May 20, 2008 | Murder suspect moved to Dade (http://helpfindthemissing.org/1060/story/543573.html)
A New York cop who sells cars part time delivered a major break in the Stepha Henry murder case by providing records for the Acura Integra in which police believe the young woman was killed, court records show.
Henry, 21, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice graduate, disappeared while visiting from New York for Memorial Day weekend.
She was last seen May 29, 2007, at a Sunrise nightclub with Kendrick Williams, who witnesses said had been driving an Acura. Her body has not been found.
Clive Wint, a New York Sanitation Authority lieutenant, had sold suspect Williams and another man an Acura Integra in April 2007.
When Miami-Dade Detective Thomas Romagni and Sgt. Michael Bracci flew to New York in June 2007, they found Wint at JNM Auto Sales in Brooklyn.
He remembered selling the Acura to Williams and a truck driver pal. He turned over the car's records to police.
In September, the car was finally located in Miami-Dade -- with blood stains on a seat belt. Detectives arrested Williams, 33, on Jan. 15 in New York.
Extradited last week, Williams faces second-degree murder charges. He is scheduled to be arraigned June 6.
The story of how detectives tracked down the suspect in the highly publicized investigation had not been known until the arrest warrant appeared recently in Miami-Dade court records.
The warrant, prepared by Romagni and Miami-Dade prosecutor Abbe Rifkin, outlines the following story:
On Memorial Day, May 28, 2007, Henry and her 16-year-old sister attended a barbecue hosted by Komisha Royce, Kendrick Williams' wife. Royce is the sister of Henry's best friend.
Stepha Henry and her best friend talked about going to Pepper's Cafe and Nightclub in Sunrise for a party. Williams -- nicknamed Homeless or Linky -- ''inserted himself into the conversation'' and offered to take Henry and her friend.
He agreed to pick her up. Her friend decided not to go.
Hours later, after midnight now on May 29, Henry dressed to go out. She told her aunt, Carletha Clarke, not to worry -- she wouldn't be out late and could sleep on the plane home to New York in the morning.
At 12:45 a.m., Williams called Henry. She put him on speaker. Clarke gave him directions to the Miami Gardens home.
Clarke noted a distinct Caribbean twang. Williams was born in Trinidad and Tobago.
Shortly afterward, a man in a small, dark Acura picked Henry up. Clarke never saw her niece again. When Henry failed to return, she called Miami-Dade police.
Clues were scarce. She wasn't using her cellphone. Her bank account had not been touched.
Investigators reviewed footage shot by a promotional crew of Henry with Williams at Pepper's. Cellphone records show a last call to her voicemail at 4:13 a.m.
Tracing the call's proximity to a cellphone tower, detectives determined she was less than a mile from the club. Detective Romagni, a seasoned homicide investigator, took on the case and began looking for Williams, who split his time between New York and Florida.
On June 5, 2007, Miramar police stopped Williams for a traffic violation. He was driving a rental car.
Romagni interviewed Williams in the Miramar police station. He denied knowing Henry -- even when shown phone records detailing calls.
Then, cops showed him the footage from Pepper's. He admitted seeing her there but denied giving her a ride.
He denied owning a dark-colored Acura. He claimed he had borrowed the car from a pal named Pedro Joseph, from San Antonio, Texas. He also said he had returned the car to him -- but could not tell detectives how to find his friend.
With no more evidence, police arrested Williams for driving without a license.
But Williams' wife, Royce, told detectives her husband had owned an Acura -- purchased in Brooklyn. Williams frequently bought, fixed and re-sold cars in the borough. Royce said her spouse sometimes got cars from a place called JNM Auto Sales.
Romagni and Bracci flew to New York and found Clive Wint, the part-time auto dealer.
He remembered Williams who he said had visited the dealership in late April 2007 with a man who was introduced as Pedro Joseph.
The 1995 dark gray Acura had been Wint's own car. He wanted to sell it. He sold it to Joseph for about $700 or $800. Wint signed the back of the title, handed it to Joseph and the two men drove off.
Romagni found that Pedro Joseph was not the man's real name. He was Lester St. Louis, a Miami trucker who drives often to New York.
Detectives located St. Louis, who told them while in New York that April, Williams had asked him for help buying a car.
''St. Louis agreed, although he did not know why subject Williams didn't just buy the car himself,'' the warrant reads.
At the dealership, Williams gave St. Louis the money to pay Wint. St. Louis then handed the car and title over to Williams.
In an interview with detectives, St. Louis said that he later saw Williams driving the car in Florida around Memorial Day. After the holiday, he told St. Louis he had decided to sell the car.
Wint, luckily, had kept records. Detectives now had the Acura's VIN, or vehicle identification number.
On Sept. 8, Romagni discovered that the title was being transferred to Jill Bethel, a state corrections data supervisor in Miami whose friend Cedrick Magill had seen a car parked and advertised for sale near where he stores his truck.
It was an Acura.
Magill helped Bethel buy the car through a man she thought was Wint, the name on the title. Williams was the real seller, police believe.
Romagni noticed the car had recently been cleaned and there was `what appeared to be a bleach or chemical stain on the carpet on the front right floorboard and beneath the front right passenger seat.''
Blood apparently stained the seat belt. Investigators found blood ``inconsistent with a minor wound.''
Henry's parents and sister provided DNA samples, which matched the blood in the Acura ``to a certainty of one in thirteen million.''
Associate Medical Examiner Dr. Emma Lew reviewed the evidence and concluded that the blood on the seat showed Henry ''had been struck or stabbed or injured in the upper back/lower neck/head area.'' She had bled ``quite profusely.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/519/story/543909.html
Months of gumshoe work, a trip to New York, and a helpful car dealer allowed investigators to link a suspect to evidence in the Stepha Henry murder case.
BY DAVID OVALLE
http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2008/05/23/11/546-Pray00_Stepha_Dade_RRG.embedded.prod_affiliate.56. JPG (http://helpfindthemissing.org/forum/#x)
RONNA GRADUS/MIAMI HERALD STAFF
Jean Richards, left, and Cheryl Greene pray for Stepha Henry and for police to find her killer during a special service at Kendall Seventh Day Adventist Church in 2007.
» More Photos (http://helpfindthemissing.org/forum/#x)
Dec. 24, 2007 | Missing woman's family struggles (http://helpfindthemissing.org/1060/story/543615.html)
Jan. 16, 2008 | Murder charge filed in missing student case (http://helpfindthemissing.org/1060/story/543589.html)
Jan 17, 2008 | Stormy past of murder suspect (http://helpfindthemissing.org/1060/story/543587.html)
Jan. 21, 2008 | Victim's mother clings to hope (http://helpfindthemissing.org/1060/story/543582.html)
Feb. 15, 2008 | Murder suspect fights extradition (http://helpfindthemissing.org/1060/story/543574.html)
May 20, 2008 | Murder suspect moved to Dade (http://helpfindthemissing.org/1060/story/543573.html)
A New York cop who sells cars part time delivered a major break in the Stepha Henry murder case by providing records for the Acura Integra in which police believe the young woman was killed, court records show.
Henry, 21, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice graduate, disappeared while visiting from New York for Memorial Day weekend.
She was last seen May 29, 2007, at a Sunrise nightclub with Kendrick Williams, who witnesses said had been driving an Acura. Her body has not been found.
Clive Wint, a New York Sanitation Authority lieutenant, had sold suspect Williams and another man an Acura Integra in April 2007.
When Miami-Dade Detective Thomas Romagni and Sgt. Michael Bracci flew to New York in June 2007, they found Wint at JNM Auto Sales in Brooklyn.
He remembered selling the Acura to Williams and a truck driver pal. He turned over the car's records to police.
In September, the car was finally located in Miami-Dade -- with blood stains on a seat belt. Detectives arrested Williams, 33, on Jan. 15 in New York.
Extradited last week, Williams faces second-degree murder charges. He is scheduled to be arraigned June 6.
The story of how detectives tracked down the suspect in the highly publicized investigation had not been known until the arrest warrant appeared recently in Miami-Dade court records.
The warrant, prepared by Romagni and Miami-Dade prosecutor Abbe Rifkin, outlines the following story:
On Memorial Day, May 28, 2007, Henry and her 16-year-old sister attended a barbecue hosted by Komisha Royce, Kendrick Williams' wife. Royce is the sister of Henry's best friend.
Stepha Henry and her best friend talked about going to Pepper's Cafe and Nightclub in Sunrise for a party. Williams -- nicknamed Homeless or Linky -- ''inserted himself into the conversation'' and offered to take Henry and her friend.
He agreed to pick her up. Her friend decided not to go.
Hours later, after midnight now on May 29, Henry dressed to go out. She told her aunt, Carletha Clarke, not to worry -- she wouldn't be out late and could sleep on the plane home to New York in the morning.
At 12:45 a.m., Williams called Henry. She put him on speaker. Clarke gave him directions to the Miami Gardens home.
Clarke noted a distinct Caribbean twang. Williams was born in Trinidad and Tobago.
Shortly afterward, a man in a small, dark Acura picked Henry up. Clarke never saw her niece again. When Henry failed to return, she called Miami-Dade police.
Clues were scarce. She wasn't using her cellphone. Her bank account had not been touched.
Investigators reviewed footage shot by a promotional crew of Henry with Williams at Pepper's. Cellphone records show a last call to her voicemail at 4:13 a.m.
Tracing the call's proximity to a cellphone tower, detectives determined she was less than a mile from the club. Detective Romagni, a seasoned homicide investigator, took on the case and began looking for Williams, who split his time between New York and Florida.
On June 5, 2007, Miramar police stopped Williams for a traffic violation. He was driving a rental car.
Romagni interviewed Williams in the Miramar police station. He denied knowing Henry -- even when shown phone records detailing calls.
Then, cops showed him the footage from Pepper's. He admitted seeing her there but denied giving her a ride.
He denied owning a dark-colored Acura. He claimed he had borrowed the car from a pal named Pedro Joseph, from San Antonio, Texas. He also said he had returned the car to him -- but could not tell detectives how to find his friend.
With no more evidence, police arrested Williams for driving without a license.
But Williams' wife, Royce, told detectives her husband had owned an Acura -- purchased in Brooklyn. Williams frequently bought, fixed and re-sold cars in the borough. Royce said her spouse sometimes got cars from a place called JNM Auto Sales.
Romagni and Bracci flew to New York and found Clive Wint, the part-time auto dealer.
He remembered Williams who he said had visited the dealership in late April 2007 with a man who was introduced as Pedro Joseph.
The 1995 dark gray Acura had been Wint's own car. He wanted to sell it. He sold it to Joseph for about $700 or $800. Wint signed the back of the title, handed it to Joseph and the two men drove off.
Romagni found that Pedro Joseph was not the man's real name. He was Lester St. Louis, a Miami trucker who drives often to New York.
Detectives located St. Louis, who told them while in New York that April, Williams had asked him for help buying a car.
''St. Louis agreed, although he did not know why subject Williams didn't just buy the car himself,'' the warrant reads.
At the dealership, Williams gave St. Louis the money to pay Wint. St. Louis then handed the car and title over to Williams.
In an interview with detectives, St. Louis said that he later saw Williams driving the car in Florida around Memorial Day. After the holiday, he told St. Louis he had decided to sell the car.
Wint, luckily, had kept records. Detectives now had the Acura's VIN, or vehicle identification number.
On Sept. 8, Romagni discovered that the title was being transferred to Jill Bethel, a state corrections data supervisor in Miami whose friend Cedrick Magill had seen a car parked and advertised for sale near where he stores his truck.
It was an Acura.
Magill helped Bethel buy the car through a man she thought was Wint, the name on the title. Williams was the real seller, police believe.
Romagni noticed the car had recently been cleaned and there was `what appeared to be a bleach or chemical stain on the carpet on the front right floorboard and beneath the front right passenger seat.''
Blood apparently stained the seat belt. Investigators found blood ``inconsistent with a minor wound.''
Henry's parents and sister provided DNA samples, which matched the blood in the Acura ``to a certainty of one in thirteen million.''
Associate Medical Examiner Dr. Emma Lew reviewed the evidence and concluded that the blood on the seat showed Henry ''had been struck or stabbed or injured in the upper back/lower neck/head area.'' She had bled ``quite profusely.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/519/story/543909.html