An Arizona judge has refused to send the Soho hotel murder suspect to the Big Apple to face murder charges for the heinous slaying inside a hotel.
On Monday, Court Commissioner Barbara Spencer said Raas Almansoori, 26, will remain in Arizona to stand trial for the attempted murder of the two women he reportedly stabbed after fleeing New York. He is currently being held without bail.
He has also been accused of killing Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, who was found beaten to death at the SoHo 54 hotel in New York City on February 8.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had hoped Almansoori would be sent back to the Big Apple, but Maricopa County Prosecutor Rachel Mitchell has insisted that the criminal remain in her jurisdiction.
She criticized Bragg and his lax bail policies in explaining why she did not want the suspect extradited despite the more serious charges.
“The local charges, by law, have to be resolved before anything can happen with his New York case,” Spencer said Monday.
On Monday, Judicial Commissioner Barbara Spencer said Raas Almansoori, 26, will remain in Arizona. He was seen with his head bowed in court on Monday as he listened to the judge’s decision.
Spencer’s decision came after Maricopa County Prosecutor Rachel Mitchell insisted that the criminal remain in her jurisdiction after he fled to Arizona from New York City in early February. She criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his lax bail policies in explaining why she did not want the suspect extradited despite the more serious charges.
Although Bragg didn’t get his way, he still has the opportunity to ask Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a fellow Democrat, to get involved and potentially reverse the decision.
Amansoori’s fate has sparked a political battle between the two states after Mitchell said he would not send him back to New York to stand trial.
“Having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, I believe it is safer to keep him here and keep him in custody so that he cannot be doing this to individuals in our state”. county or anywhere in the United States,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Bragg said it is “deeply disturbing” that Mitchell is “playing political games in a murder investigation.”
‘New York’s homicide rate is less than half that of Phoenix, Arizona, thanks to 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 the death of a New Yorker.”
Almansoori was captured leaving the Soho 54 hotel on surveillance footage while wearing Oleas-Arancibia’s cat suit on a well-lit Manhattan street after allegedly leaving his own blood-soaked pants at the scene, police said.
Almansoori strangled Oleas-Arancibia, twisting her head from side to side in an attempt to break her neck, before hitting her with an iron, investigators said.
Surveillance footage of Almansoori captured after the murder of Oleas-Arancibia wearing her cat suit on a well-lit Manhattan street after allegedly leaving her own blood-soaked pants at the scene, investigators said.
The suspect then left town and headed to Arizona, where he was accused of stabbing a woman in her car in Phoenix, the day before stabbing an 18-year-old woman multiple times in the neck inside a McDonald’s bathroom in a nearby town.
Arizona police Detective Jeremy Goebel told the court that Almansoori allegedly followed the 18-year-old victim into the McDonald’s bathroom, crawled under her stall door before spraying her with pepper spray and stabbing her in the neck as she screamed. .
She later described him as having an “evil eye.”
The officer said Almansoori had also talked about a plan to kill his father and stepmother and burn down their house.
Almansoori was soon found, taken from a stolen vehicle and arrested at gunpoint in a Phoenix garage on February 18.
On February 27, he appeared at a detention hearing where he went into “graphic details” about how he gruesomely murdered Oleas-Arancibia.
Arizona Police Detective Jeremy Goebel said Amansoori described how he began strangling her after an argument broke out over how long she could stay.
Oleas-Arancibia’s body was found in a room at New York’s SoHo 54 hotel on February 8, and four days later, Almansoori reportedly flew back to Arizona from Newark, New Jersey.
The suspect then left town and headed to Arizona, where he was accused of stabbing a woman in her car in Phoenix, the day before stabbing an 18-year-old woman multiple times in the neck inside a McDonald’s bathroom in a near the town
“In her words, ‘She just wouldn’t die,'” the court heard.
When the chokehold didn’t work, Amansoori twisted her head from side to side in an attempt to break her neck, before hitting her with an iron.
She was already dying from her injuries when he tried to suffocate her with a sock and blanket, according to Goebel.
“No woman on this planet likes me, so I was very upset,” he told the officer.
Oleas-Arancibia’s body was found the morning of February 8, and four days later, Almansoori reportedly flew back to Arizona from Newark, New Jersey.
At a press conference in February, the NYPD revealed that Almansoori was out 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 his Orlando, Florida, home before choking and sexually assaulting her.
‘I hate having to do this. I hate having to kill you,” Almansoori allegedly told Palian during the ordeal.
The NYPD revealed that Almansoori was out on bail at the time of the murder. Leah Palian (pictured) has revealed that Almansoori held her captive in her Orlando, Florida, home before choking and sexually assaulting her in April last year.
Alamsoori was arrested but released 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 possible 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 imminent danger I posed to many other women.’
He was also charged with robbery, assault, theft and criminal mischief in the separate Phoenix investigation.
He was charged Tuesday in Arizona with two counts of attempted first-degree murder for each victim in the stabbings, as well as aggravated assault, attempted sexual assault, attempted armed robbery and theft of conveyance.