Ex-bouncer convicted in kidnapping

The man charged in the 2006 rape and killing of a 24-year-old Mission Hill woman was convicted yesterday of kidnapping a New York City college student. Darryl Littlejohn, 44, faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison. Littlejohn, a former Manhattan nightclub bouncer, also faces a murder trial in the killing of Imette St. Guillen, a graduate student from Boston who was studying in New York City. In the kidnapping case, authorities said Littlejohn posed as a police officer and handcuffed York College student Shanai Woodward as she walked home from classes in Queens in October 2005. Prosecutors said he forced her into his van's backseat, and she jumped from the moving van to escape. Defense lawyer Jason Russo said Littlejohn maintains his innocence and plans to appeal. (AP)

A Brewster man was arrested and charged with trafficking heroin yesterday after police say they found about $15,000 of the drug in his vehicle. John K. Hurst, 19, was pulled over about 12:25 a.m. for an expired inspection sticker, said Detective Kevin Higgins of the Orleans Police Department. After suspicions arose and a search was conducted, police said they found 426 bags of heroin, cash, and hypodermic needles. Hurst pleaded not guilty in Orleans District Court yesterday. This was the second motor vehicle stop in three weeks that resulted in a seizure of a large amount of heroin and cash in Orleans, police said.

The state's highest court reduced the first-degree murder conviction yesterday of a Cape Cod mother who confessed to smothering her 2-year-old daughter. The Supreme Judicial Court said Erin Colleran was an otherwise doting 27-year-old mother who was in a profound depression when she attacked her daughter, Skyler, in their Sandwich home in 2001. A Barnstable Superior Court jury in 2002 rejected Colleran's insanity defense and convicted the mother of first-degree murder, finding the smothering and strangulation premeditated and particularly cruel. She was sentenced to a mandatory life prison term without the possibility of parole. But the SJC said in its ruling that the evidence did not warrant a first-degree murder conviction and reduced it to second-degree. The SJC ordered the case back to a lower court for new sentencing. Second-degree murder carries a mandatory life term with the possibility of parole after 15 years. (AP)

A Revere man pleaded guilty to a hate crime in federal court Wednesday. Adam J. Bonito, 21, joined Christopher D. Giaquinto, 22, of Winthrop and an unnamed juvenile in pleading guilty after federal authorities alleged the three terrorized two Arab-Muslim families by repeatedly, between 2004 and 2005, vandalizing and damaging their vehicles in front of the Revere duplex the families shared. The families eventually moved out, and law enforcement charged both men with "conspiracy to interfere with fair housing rights" of the two families. Bonito and Giaquinto face up to a year in prison, a year of supervised release, a fine of up to $100,000, and unspecified restitution.

A Boston man was arraigned yesterday on charges of hitting a 50-year-old pedestrian on Centre Street in Roslindale on Wednesday night, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said. Corey Legere, 23, pleaded not guilty in West Roxbury District Court to charges of negligent operation of a motor vehicle, failure to yield to a pedestrian, and possession of a Class A substance, spokesman Jake Wark said. Legere, who police said fled the scene of the accident, is being held on $100,000 cash bail and is scheduled to return to court Nov. 14, Wark said. The victim went into cardiac arrest Wednesday night and was taken to Brigham and Women's Hospital, police said. The victim was listed in critical condition last night, police said.

The body of a 50-year-old man was found floating in Gloucester Harbor yesterday morning. Donald Connors of Gloucester was retrieved by the Coast Guard near Pavilion Beach after authorities were notified at 7 a.m. by a crew of lobster fishermen. The cause of death is unknown, according to the Essex district attorney's office. "There were no obvious signs of trauma," said Stephen O'Connell, a spokesman for District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett. O'Connell said Connors was not part of a boat crew. He said foul play is not suspected.