Posted on 01/31/2005 8:08:42 PM PST by 68skylark
A 19-year-old parolee who was prowling with childhood friends on the Lower East Side early on Thursday morning has been charged with murdering a young actress who talked back to them as they robbed her companions, the police said yesterday.
The police said that the arrest of the man, Rudy Fleming, came after detectives received tips from people who had heard that he and at least four friends were involved in the shooting.
Yesterday afternoon, Mr. Fleming was openly weeping in the back seat of an unmarked car as detectives drove him away from the offices of the Manhattan South homicide squad.
"It hurts me to know that this happened," said his godfather, Servino Simmon, at his apartment in the Baruch Houses, where Mr. Fleming had been staying near the scene of the shooting. "I feel sorry for the person. I wish that it didn't happen. It's not right."
Although Mr. Fleming was the only person charged in the killing of the actress, Nicole duFresne, 28, of Brooklyn, two of Mr. Fleming's friends were charged in an attempted robbery that took place nearby earlier that morning. Two other friends of Mr. Fleming's, brothers ages 17 and 21, were questioned in the killing but not charged after telling detectives they were shocked when Mr. Fleming pulled the trigger.
Shortly after 3 a.m. on Thursday, Ms. duFresne, who lived in Greenpoint, had just left a bar with her fiancé and another couple when they were confronted by a group of robbers on Clinton Street near Rivington Street. One of the assailants pistol-whipped her fiancé, and Ms. duFresne stepped forward and said, "What are you going to do, shoot us?" her friends said later. She was shot once in the chest and was pronounced dead later Thursday morning.
The murder suspect, Mr. Fleming, has lived in Brooklyn and Staten Island, but has lately been staying with his godfather at the Baruch Houses in Manhattan. He was on parole for a 2002 weapons conviction, when he sneaked a gun into Port Richmond High School and pointed it at a school safety officer, according to Richmond County district attorney's office.
The parole was not set to expire until June 2007. Mr. Fleming's meetings and home visits were satisfactory, and he had a job working at a restaurant, said Scott Steinhardt, a spokesman for the State Division of Parole.
His last meeting with a parole officer was an office visit on Wednesday, the day before the killing. "The office visit was unremarkable," Mr. Steinhardt said.
The police said detectives found two pieces of evidence at Mr. Simmon's apartment: a white scarf that is visible on one of the people in a security video taken near the time and place of the shooting, and what is believed to be the murder weapon, a .357 Magnum revolver.
"I was watching TV before the police came," Mr. Simmon said. "I was lying on the bed with the gun underneath. I didn't even know the gun was there."
Asked whether the police had obtained a confession in the case, Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said yesterday at a news conference, "Some statements have been made."
A police official said the crime seemed to have begun as a robbery that went bad. "They're out there and do what bad kids do when they get together," the official said. "They're looking for trouble and they find it." About the witnesses to the shooting, he added, "If you believe them, it sort of shocked everyone else." The arrests began around noon on Sunday and continuing until midnight, the police said. Mr. Fleming was the last to be arrested, at the ferry terminal on the Staten Island side. His mother lives on Staten Island, the police said.
Mr. Simmon's two sons, Servano, 17, a high school student, and Servisio, 21, were present at both crimes but have not been charged and are being treated as witnesses, the police said.
Mr. Simmon said Servano told him about the shooting. "Apparently," he said, "Rudy went to rob the lady. He pulls out a gun. No one knew he had a gun. He shoots the lady."
Mr. Simmon added: "It's not fair to the people, and it's not fair to me. I don't have enough money to buy a decent pair of pants right now, much less have the money to get them out. All I have to say is, these kids did what they did. I don't know anything. I wish I could change the whole situation, but I can't."
The arrests followed calls to the Police Department's tips hot line, Mr. Kelly said. "They were from concerned citizens," he said. "I don't want to get into it any more specifically than that."
Mr. Fleming was charged with first- and second-degree murder, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon. David Simmon, 18, and a 15-year-old boy not identified by the police because of his age were charged with attempted robbery in the case earlier that morning, in which the police said they tried to steal a man's coat. David Simmon, of Clifton Place in Brooklyn, is a cousin of the Simmon brothers.
After the shooting, the group split up, with some taking a subway to Brooklyn, but they later came back, the police said.
The following day, the police released the video clips of a group of people walking in the area, and the tips to the hot line began to arrive, the police said.
The police called both the robbery attempt and the shooting "crimes of opportunity," with the suspects happening upon their victims. Ms. duFresne and her friends had had several drinks at the bar Max Fish after she finished her first night of work at a new club, Rockwood Music Hall.
Ms. duFresne's friends described her as a tough, fiery survivor of a rape in a bar's parking lot while at Emerson College in Boston.
Her final, defiant words to her killer have led to speculation that she might not have been killed if the group had just given over their belongings.
Mr. Kelly said in a statement yesterday, "Regardless of what the victim said or did not say, the person responsible for her death is the one who pulled the trigger."
At the news conference, however, asked about how people should respond to an armed robber, he said, "If you're in a situation when someone is pointing a weapon at you, I think it's best to comply with the directions of that individual."
On Nov. 27, 2001, Mr. Fleming missed school in Staten Island and was picked up by a truancy officer. He refused to let the officer remove his jacket, and asked if he was hiding something, he said yes and pulled out a semiautomatic pistol, said William J. Smith, a spokesman for the Richmond County district attorney.
He got into a shooting position and aimed at four safety officers, before four police officers, their weapons drawn, ordered him to drop the gun, Mr. Smith said. He did.
Mr. Fleming pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted possession of a weapon and went to prison in the spring of 2002. He was released on June 18, 2004.
The police said that Mr. Fleming might be affiliated with a gang but that it did not appear to have played any role in the shooting.
Colin Moynihan and William K. Rashbaum contributed reporting for this article.
That's the NYT style, which in the past has included, Mr. Hitler and Mr. Loaf (as in Meat Loaf).
Oh I understand why a few pictures make sense. You make good points. I was talking about pictures that appear long after the investigation is over. We had some people on trial for a horrible crime near South Bend, IN, and it seemed like the local paper put up a picture of the perps every day for weeks or months throughout the trial. It was the dead victims who deserve to be seen and remembered -- not the killer.
LOL....it is not, is it? LOL @ Mr. Loaf!
Even if that is so...which I doubt...why aren't they charged with the attempted robbery which resulted in a death?
Capital murder for the shooter, felony murder for the rest of this dirtbag crew. In almost all of Georgia (i.e., other than DA Paul Howard's island of irrationality - Fulton County) - we would know what to do with them.
He got into a shooting position and aimed at four safety officers, before four police officers, their weapons drawn, ordered him to drop the gun, Mr. Smith said. He did."
Too bad for Ms. duFresne that the cops didn't shoot him dead.
I'm glad your mom was okay -- it sounds like she handled that situation just right.
In the old days, cops would walk the perps to the car and the press photographers with Speed Graphic cameras would be lined up yelling obscenities and racial slurs at them in attempts to get the perps to look mean or crazed.
For the most part, victims' families don't want pictures of their loved ones plastered over the papers day after day.
LOL that answer is tough to beat.
Yeah, anything that causes some FUD in the criminal culture is a good idea. Concealed carry is a perfect example.
Isn't "aspiring actress" another word for waitress?
Good comparison---you remember that Jack Henry Abbott's victim was an aspiring actor, Richard Adan, working as a waiter at a restaurant that I think was also on the Lower East Side. Adan's father-in-law (or soon to be father in law) wrote a GREAT letter to New Yorker magazine, bemoaning the misguidedness of people like Norman Mailer, who was entirely responsible for getting Abbott out, and largely responsible for not chaperoning him actively until he was convinced Abbott was no harm to society. In an unforgettable phrase , Adan's father in law lambasted people like Mailer and their "hollow liberal zeal" that would foist someone like Abbott on society once again, with the hope that we could take a chance on him, because "culture is worth a little risk".
Hey take it easy on Meat Loaf he's good people. Great singer and actor.
That's an excellent point. Absolutely -- it makes a lot of sense to honor the wishes of the family members.
You've got a lot of good knowledge about this topic -- you must have some newspaper experience.
Just wait until the Post story comes out! LOL
No, I'm just nosey about the jobs people have. I once had a friend who had the unenviable job of going to the victim's home and retrieving pictures from the grieving. How'd you like to have a job where you dug through family scrap books to find just the right shot of a dead 10 year old with the kid's mother?
Fortunately, these guys were only interested in cash, cigarettes, and wine. Unlike the punk in this article. He was out to kill, not rob someone that night. (pistol whipping a big clue) Fry his *ss.
You would think she would have had enough of bars.
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