Free Republic

NEW YORK -- Civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart was sentenced to 28 months in prison in federal court in Manhattan Monday. She was convicted of providing support to terrorists by helping a jailed Egyptian sheik communicate with his followers on the outside. Before sentencing, her lawyer told the judge that any prison sentence for Stewart would be a death sentence because of her serious health problems. Stewart pleaded with the judge to allow her to live out the rest of her life "productively, lovingly, righteously.'' Assistant US Attorney Andrew Dember rejected defense suggestions that Stewart's conduct was judged differently after9-11. "This case...

JERSEY CITY - Prosecutors will ask that two men charged with murdering a city family during a botched robbery last January be sentenced to death if found guilty, authorities said Friday. No date has been set for the trial of Edward McDonald, 25, and Hamilton Sanchez, 31, both of whom were formally arraigned on murder charges this month. Both men have pleaded not guilty to the violent slayings of Hossam Armanious, his wife, Amal Garas, and their two young daughters. "Both of them are designated as capital murder cases," said Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio. "We're seeking the death penalty."...

TRENTON - Muslims and Christians both say they will skip a meeting with state officials aimed at calming tensions between the two sides. The state Division of Criminal Justice's Office of Bias Crimes and Community Relations had scheduled a meeting for Monday. A rift between Coptic Christians and Muslims arose following the murder of the Armanious family, Coptic Christians who were tied up and stabbed in their Jersey City home. Although two non-Muslims -one an acquaintance of the victims - were later charged, authorities at first investigated the possibility that religious tensions might lie behind the crimes. "We want to...

Cops say McDonald murdered, then went on with life upstairs good worker, boss says Monday, March 07, 2005 By Brian Donohue Newhouse News Service Edward McDonald, 25, was questioned by investigators on Jan. 14, the morning police found his landlord, his wife and their two daughters stabbed to death in their Jersey City Heights home. After the interview, McDonald walked out of the prosecutor's office - and coolly past the brother of the slain woman, Ayman Garas, who was entering the building to meet with detectives. On Friday, McDonald and Hamilton Sanchez, 30, pleaded not guilty to four counts of...

Robbery, not religion, motive in Jersey City family slaying By WAYNE PARRY ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Robbery, not religion, was the motive behind the savage slaying of a family of four in January, prosecutors said Friday. Two paroled drug dealers who were deeply in debt were charged with four counts of murder and held on $10 million bail in the Jan. 11 killing of the Armanious family, Coptic Christians from Egypt who emigrated to the United States in 1997. Friends of the family had speculated that Hossam Armanious might have angered Muslims with postings he made in...

By ANTHONY RAMIREZ Published: March 5, 2005 or Egyptian-Americans in New Jersey, the nightmare seemed to come true in January. A Christian family of four was found slaughtered in their Jersey City home. It was rumored that the father had exchanged angry words with a Muslim on the Internet. Egyptian Muslims and Egyptian Coptic Christians are at brutal odds with each other in their homeland, but those who had immigrated to the United States had nonetheless managed to live peacefully. Now they seemed as if they could be headed toward a Muslim-Christian face-off.. Yesterday, two suspects, both of them non-Egyptian...

FBI pick up a former tenant of the home. He used their ATM card.

March 5, 2005 -- The youngest member of the massacred Jersey City Coptic clan was butchered after recognizing a neighbor as one of the men who invaded her home. The sighting, which came as the girl made a desperate escape bid, sparked the slaughter of her entire family. Monica Armanious, 9, bravely struggled out of the duct-tape bonds that the two thieves wrapped around her wrists and eyes in the Jan. 14 robbery. But before she could make it to freedom, she saw accused attacker Edward McDonald, a 25-year-old father of two who rented the family's upstairs apartment, law-enforcement sources...

Two Charged in N.J. Family Slaying March 04, 2005 JERSEY CITY, N.J. — The upstairs tenant of an Egyptian Christian family found slain in their home in January and another man have been charged in the killings, and authorities said Friday the motive was robbery, not religious fanaticism. Two men already on parole for drug offenses pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder in the Jan. 11 killing of the Armanious family (search), which had caused tension between Christians and Muslims in New Jersey. Edward McDonald, 25, who rented a second-floor apartment above the Armanious family, and Hamilton Sanchez,...

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - The upstairs tenant of an Egyptian Christian family found slain in their home in January and another man have been charged in the killings, and authorities said Friday the motive was robbery, not religious fanaticism. Two men already on parole for drug offenses pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder in the Jan. 11 killing of the Armanious family, which had caused tension between Christians and Muslims in New Jersey. Edward McDonald, 25, who rented a second-floor apartment above the Armanious family, and Hamilton Sanchez, 30, were ordered held on $10 million bail. "I didn't...

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Two people have been arrested in the murder of an Egyptian Christian family, authorities said Friday. The suspects were to be arraigned Friday afternoon in state Superior Court. The Hudson County prosecutor's office would not release the identities of those arrested or the charges they face until they appear in court.

Authorities have made a major break in the case of the slain Jersey City family, with two suspects scheduled to be arraigned today. Although the Hudson County prosecutor's office isn't releasing the names of the two people or saying what the charges are, local press reports one of them is a former tenant of the building where the Coptic Christian family lived and was found murdered Jan. 14. As WorldNetDaily reported, Hossam Armanious, was found in his home with his wife and two daughters -- Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8 -- bound and gagged with their throats slashed.

By WAYNE PARRY The Associated Press JERSEY CITY, N.J. - The upstairs neighbor of an Egyptian Christian family found slain in their home in January was charged Friday, along with another man, in the murders. Edward McDonald, 25, who rented a second-floor apartment above Hossam Armanious and his family, pleaded not guilty to four counts of felony murder. Hamilton Sanchez, 30, faces the same charges and also pleaded not guilty. Sanchez during a court hearing began crying as he stood before a judge, his hands cuffed behind his back. "I didn't kill nobody. I didn't kill nobody, man. I didn't...

March 4, 2005 -- An ex-con and former upstairs neighbor reportedly was being grilled last night in the savage stabbing deaths of a Jersey City family of four

Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said yesterday that it appears unlikely investigators will be able to decipher the license plate of the car used by a man who made ATM withdrawals from the account of a slain Jersey City Heights family. An image caught on a security camera at a Central Avenue drive-through ATM showing the man using the family's bank card is not clear enough to read the plate, even after being digitally enhanced, DeFazio said. DeFazio said the angle the video was taken from will likely make it impossible to read the car's plate number, but that identifying...

Here's my letter to Kenneth Chan of the Christian Post. They seem to be doing everything they can to pretend there is no religious angle to the New Jersey killings. Please write Mr. Chan (kenneth@christianpost.com) and encourage him to dig a bit deeper: Dear Mr. Chan, Your article in the Christian post, published under the title "Christians, Muslims call for Unity in New Jersey," only included, that I could tell, a single comment from a single Episcopalian minister, but no updated response from Coptic clergy in the area. Did I miss something? Have you pressed federal and local authorities for...

Last month's grisly murder in Jersey City of Hossam Armanious, his wife, Amal, and two daughters, Sylvia and Monica, remains unsolved. But friends and relatives of the family are convinced the bloody crime is rooted in a growing wave of violence and oppression against Christians taking place in Arab countries. They may well be right. The Armanious family was devoutly Coptic Christian — an ancient orthodox Egyptian sect that has long suffered from discrimination and coercion in largely Muslim Egypt. Armanious did something in America that he wouldn't dare try in his native Egypt: He attempted to convert Muslims to...

Security video from a Central Avenue bank's drive-through ATM machine has captured images of the car used by a man to steal from the account of the slain Jersey City family of four whose bodies were found bound and gagged in their Heights home in January, officials said.Hudson County Prosecutor Edward Defazio said investigators have been able to determine the make, model and year of the car and are having the images enhanced with the hope of being able to read the license plate number."We have ascertained, by surveillance, time and observation, that the vehicle used at the drive-in by...

Security video from a Central Avenue bank's drive-through ATM machine has captured images of the car used by a man to steal from the account of the slain Jersey City family of four whose bodies were found bound and gagged in their Heights home in January, officials said. Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said investigators have been able to determine the make, model and year of the car and are having the images enhanced with the hope of being able to read the license plate number. "We have ascertained, by surveillance, time and observation, that the vehicle was apparently used...

During the two-day period that a brutally slain Jersey City family of four lay dead in their bloody Oakland Avenue apartment, a man was already using their bank card to raid their accounts at nearby ATMs on Central Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard - and police have video of the withdrawals, officials said yesterday. "We don't know at this point where the person resides, but it could be someone from Jersey City," Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said. "The pattern of the ATM locations speaks for itself, and I don't think we need significant analysis of that." DeFazio said reviews of...