Murder Suspect Stalked Manhattan Before Killing Two in Queens; Nabbed in Times Sq.

In the weeks before a 42-year-old ex-con robbed and killed a husband and wife inside their home in Bellerose, Queens, on Sept. 8, he had stalked two Manhattan stores this summer, robbing a GameStop store in Central Harlem in July and trying unsuccessfully to rob a Verizon store in Chelsea on Aug. 31.

It was a shopping spree with stolen credit cards in Manhattan that ultimately alerted police to his whereabouts and led to the arrest of Jamel McGriff 36 hours after the double slaying in Queens on Sept. 8. Two sharp-eyed cops spotted him at the intersection of West 44th Street and Seventh Avenue after police had tracked him through his use of credit cards stolen from the victims, including an $843 shopping spree in Macy’s.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said that McGriff confessed to cops that he had killed the elderly couple, Frank Olton, 76, and his wife, Maureen, 77, in their Bellerose home. Prosecutors said he tortured the victims for five hours before setting the home on fire and fleeing.

He remained at large for 36 hours as the police began a multi-borough man hunt. On Sept. 9, cops said he pawned two cell phones in the Bronx, not far from his last known address at a halfway house on Crescent Road in the south Bronx.

The most recent incident prior to the alleged double slaying was the Aug. 31 robbery attempt in the Chelsea Verizon store at 600 Sixth Ave.

Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny disclosed at a press conference at One Police Plaza on Sept. 9 that an employee at the Verizon store had noticed the suspect had a weapon that appeared fake and “fought back,” forcing the suspect to flee empty-handed.

In an exclusive interview, the heroic Verizon store employee, who gave his name as Brian and who did not want his photo used, said he had punched McGriff in the face repeatedly during the attempted broad daylight robbery attempt. After being ordered to the rear of the store by the perpetrator, who said he had a weapon, Brian said he spied a shiny handle on the “weapon” and surmised the “weapon was a toy.” He rained haymakers on the suspect, forcing him to flee.

“I know it’s not my fault, but I wish I had dropped his ass rather than just punching him in the face until he ran away,” Brian told Straus News on Sept. 10. Brian continued to punch the suspect, forcing McGriff to lose his JVL headphones as he fled. Commissioner Tisch said McGriff’s parole officer also identified him in the surveillance videos. Prosecutors said McGriff, an ex-con, was still on parole for a 2006 robbery and sexual assault and had also failed to register as a sex offender once he was out on parole.

Preying on Manhattanites was apparently nothing new for McGriff. One of his early crimes stemmed from a Nov. 21, 2005 incident in Chelsea in which he sexually molested a 23-year-old woman in a store he was robbing on Seventh Avenue and 16th Street, not far from the Verizon store. He was also convicted of robbing a 34-year-old man at knifepoint on the F train in Manhattan on Nov. 12, 2005, taking a watch and cash. That incident sent him to prison to serve a 16-year sentence.

In addition to the thwarted Verizon robbery, police said he was wanted in the July robbery at a GameStop store at 251 W. 125th St., adjacent to the historic Apollo Theater.

His last known sighting before his arrest was at a shop in the Bronx, where he turned in two cell phones for cash.

On the afternoon of the murder, police said McGriff was going door to door in Bellerose asking people if could recharge his cell phone. Another homeowner in the Bellerose neighborhood had already turned down McGriff’s request. Frank Olton took the phone inside to charge it but told McGriff to wait in the yard. McGriff entered the home anyway. On a surveillance tape, Olton could be heard yelling “Get the f*** out of here,” after McGriff followed him into the house. McGriff apparently tortured the couple for five hours before setting the house on fire. Police said Frank Olton was found tied to a pole in the basement with numerous stab wounds; his wife was found on the first floor severely burned.

In a tragic twist, one of the first responders to the fire at the home was the Oltons’ son, Matthew Olton, who Chief of Detectives Kenny said is an FDNY EMT. He said the son received an alert that there was a fire in the home where he had grown up. Firefighters discovered the bodies of his parents only after they had extinguished the blaze. Both had multiple stab wounds.

McGriff now faces 16 felony accounts including first-degree murder, kidnapping, and robbery, prosecutors said. He was remanded to Rikers Island where he is being held without bail.