Free Republic

A 21-year-old Staten Island man from a family of convicts was shot and killed Tuesday, apparently with his own gun while trying to rob someone, police sources said. Grant Fleming was shot on the fifth floor of a building in the Richmond Terrace Houses on Jersey St. but was able to stumble to the lobby, where he collapsed about 2 a.m., cops said. Fleming, whose brother Rudy Fleming, 23, is serving a life sentence for gunning down actress Nicole duFresne in 2005 on the lower East Side, was taken to Richmond University Medical Center, where he died from the gunshot...

March 2, 2005 -- Her happiness doomed her. Slain actress Nicole duFresne had a smile on her face as she strolled a Lower East Side street after a night of partying — and it was her smile, and those of her friends, that made them targets, according to a stunning new confession. DuFresne's happiness was like grit in the eye of cheerleader-turned-murder defendant Ashley Evans, who strolled the streets with a pack of friends. So Evans singled the group out — ultimately, for murder.

When Nicole duFresne died, man bit dog and ink flowed The Sunday before Nicole duFresne became famous, the New York Police Department reported 35 murders in the city so far this year. By week's end, there'd be 41. Some made the papers. Eric Dunning was killed by an ex-con. Juan Jimenez died in a hit-and-run. Fausto Lachapel was gunned down in a lobby. But none were front-page fodder, day after day, like duFresne. She had the unique characteristics of being white, beautiful, and murdered. It wasn't just any murder. It was a random crime, committed by an apparently clueless perp,...

The high school cheerleader who allegedly hid the stolen handgun used to kill actress Nicole duFresne never should have covered up for the murderer, the actress' heartbroken fiancé said yesterday. "She didn't have to flee the state, hide the gun and take on another person's crime in the way that she did," 29-year-old Jeffrey Sparks said of Ashley Evans, who went to her father's Maryland home after the crime. "She could have come forward. She didn't have to hide out," Sparks said before a memorial ceremony on the lower East Side to honor the woman he had planned to marry...

BLAZING TRIBUTE By MARK BULLIET and ANDY GELLER The silhouette of Nicole duFresne burned brightly last night on the Lower East Side corner where her shooting star of a life was snuffed out by a gunman's bullet. With drums, candles, incense and heavy hearts, some 200 friends said goodbye to the 28-year-old actress at a unique and poignant memorial service. It began with mourners marching to the corner of Clinton and Rivington streets, where duFresne was shot in the chest during a mugging at 3 a.m. Jan. 27. Four men twirled balls burning on the ends of chains during the...