Danueal Drayton, 31, was extradited from California to Queens and held without bail on Friday for the savage strangulation of a nurse inside her home in 2018 after the couple hooked up on a dating app.
The man is charged with second-degree murder and another 18 counts in the brutal slaying of Samantha Stewart after the couple first met and returned to their apartment, prosecutors said.
Court documents say Drayton “engaged in sexual conduct” with Stewart’s body after killing the 29-year-old woman.
“The victim was tricked into going out on a date with the defendant, who played a charming role online but was actually a sexual predator,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “He is accused of brutally beating and then killing this innocent woman in her own home.”
Drayton used Stewart’s credit cards to flee the city for California, where he was accused of attempting to strangle another woman while holding her hostage for two days inside his North Hollywood home, police said.
New York police and local authorities arrested the suspect, whose West Coast victim was also raped, authorities said.
Drayton, a former New Haven, Connecticut resident, faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted of the Queens murder.
According to authorities, Drayton and Stewart dated on July 16, 2018, after meeting through the dating app Tinder. She then beat and strangled her inside her house before raping her dead body. The dead woman’s brother found her body a day later, wrapped in a blanket on the floor of her apartment.
By this time, Drayton had fled in a white van to catch a flight west from Kennedy Airport. The subject used Stewart’s credit card to purchase his ticket, but was arrested eight days later.
The suspect, in a 2019 jailhouse interview with the Daily News, said he heard “voices” that forced him to strangle Stewart.
“I really liked her,” he said. “I didn’t want to kill her. It’s mind control. They use direct energy weapons on me to control my mind.”
Shortly before the fatal attack on Stewart, Drayton was released without bail in a Long Island case where he was accused of strangling an ex-girlfriend in a park.
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