Arizona criticizes Bragg and refuses to send a murder suspect to New York

Prosecutors in Arizona declined to extradite a 26-year-old man accused of killing a woman at a New York City hotel this month over what they said was the Manhattan district attorney's lenient treatment of violent criminals.

Rachel Mitchell, the attorney for Maricopa County in Arizona, said at a news conference Wednesday that her team would not cooperate with Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who is expected to charge the man, Raad Almansoori, with the murders of 38 – year-old Denisse Oleas-Arancibia.

After hotel workers discovered Ms. Oleas-Arancibia's body on Feb. 8 in a rented room at SoHo 54, Mr. Almansoori flew to Arizona, New York police officials said Wednesday. He was arrested there after stabbing a McDonald's restaurant employee on February 18. Mr. Almansoori has been in custody in Maricopa County ever since.

“I have seen the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by the Manhattan district attorney there, Alvin Bragg,” Ms. Mitchell told reporters. “I think it's safer to keep him here and in custody so he can't do this against individuals in our state, county or anywhere else in the United States.”

Police unions and Republican officials in New York City and across the country have complained that too many dangerous people are being released on bail before trial, and that Mr. Bragg has failed to prosecute them as aggressively as he could. But there was no indication that Mr. Bragg's office would not try to keep the suspect behind bars.

On Wednesday, Emily Tuttle, a spokeswoman for Mr. Bragg, called Ms. Mitchell's comments an insult.

“It is deeply disturbing that District Attorney Mitchell is playing political games in a murder investigation,” Ms. Tuttle said in a statement. She also noted that homicides and shootings have decreased since Mr. Bragg came to power.

“New York's murder rate is less than half that of Phoenix, Arizona, thanks to the hard work of the NYPD and all of our law enforcement partners,” Ms. Tuttle said. “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.”

The gesture by Ms. Mitchell, a Republican who has held office since April 2022, is an extraordinary violation of criminal justice standards and appears to be a continuation of an attempt by the party controlled by former President Donald J. Trump to to embarrass Mr Bragg. . His office will file a criminal case accusing Trump of orchestrating the cover-up of a hush money payment to a porn star in an effort to conceal her story of an affair before the 2016 election.

After Mr. Trump was indicted in Manhattan last March, prominent Republicans, including Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, held a hearing that they said would spotlight crime in New York City. They portrayed Mr. Bragg as a hypocrite more focused on a political crusade than bad behavior in his backyard.