Warrant charges Craigslist suspect with R.I. assault

[May 05, 2009]  WARWICK, R.I. (AP) -- A medical student jailed in Boston on suspicion of killing a masseuse he met on Craigslist was charged Monday in an arrest warrant with pulling a gun on a stripper in a Rhode Island hotel.

The warrant accuses Philip Markoff of assault and weapons violations. Authorities had previously said Markoff was the suspect in the April 16 robbery attempt at a Holiday Inn Express in Warwick.

A Las Vegas stripper who offered lap dances told Rhode Island authorities that she was bound with cord and held at gunpoint by a man she met through the Craigslist classified advertising Web site. She said her assailant fled when her husband came up to the hotel room.

Police had earlier described the suspect as a tall white male with blond hair, which matches Markoff's description. Attorney General Patrick Lynch, at a news conference Monday, said he had no doubt about the identity of the woman's attacker.

"It was Philip Markoff," Lynch said. "He will be brought to justice."

A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity previously told The Associated Press that investigators found Markoff's fingerprint in the hotel. They also believe he sent text messages from there. But police and prosecutors refused to discuss the evidence Monday.

Markoff, a second-year medical student at Boston University, was arrested April 20 on Interstate 95 while driving with his fiancee to Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut.

He was charged with the April 14 killing of Julissa Brisman, a 25-year-old New York City resident who advertised on Craigslist, at the Boston Marriott Copley Place hotel, in the historic Back Bay district. He has also been charged in a robbery at a Boston hotel of another masseuse police say he met through the site.

Markoff has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, John Salsberg, did not return a phone message Monday but has said his client is innocent and has his family's support.

Markoff's fiancee, Megan McAllister, visited Markoff in jail last week and has said she still loves and supports him but will be cooperating with prosecutors. Her lawyer has said the couple's wedding, which had been scheduled for August, is being "dismantled."

Because Markoff, 23, is a suspect in a homicide case in Boston, it could take six months to a year before he makes his first appearance in a Rhode Island courtroom, Lynch said. But he said he was committed to prosecuting Markoff even if it could take a couple of years and even though Markoff faces life without the possibility of parole if convicted of murder in Massachusetts.

"You go forward because a community cries out for justice -- justice for an act that takes place that merits a response," Lynch said.

Prosecutors could convene a grand jury to formally indict Markoff in the Warwick attack or press criminal charges directly against him.

Markoff was put on suicide watch at the Boston jail where he is being held.

The Rhode Island warrant, signed by a Superior Court judge Monday morning, accuses Markoff of assault with intent to commit robbery and assault with a dangerous weapon, each of which carries a maximum of 20 years in prison upon conviction.

The warrant also includes counts of illegal possession of a handgun and using a firearm while committing a crime of violence, which have lesser punishments.

[Associated Press; By ERIC TUCKER]

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