Homeless man arraigned in slaying of Mass. student in NYC

By Globe Staff

A 22-year-old man was arraigned today in a New York City court on a charge that he murdered a 19-year-old student from Massachusetts who had invited him to his apartment during the weekend.

Jeromie Cancel, who is homeless, was ordered held without bail after a hearing before Judge Felicia Mennin in Manhattan Criminal Court. A further hearing was slated for Friday, said Alicia Maxey Greene, a spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.

Cancel allegedly murdered Kevin Pravia, 19, of the tiny western Massachusetts town of Peru, who was an honor roll student at Pace University in New York, on Saturday morning.

Police have said that Cancel told them that Pravia, looking for drugs, invited Cancel to his apartment.

According to a criminal complaint filed by a New York detective in the case, Cancel told police that Pravia fell asleep and, while he was sleeping, Cancel looked around the house and grabbed some of Pravia's belongings.

"The defendant was about to walk out the door but turned back" and choked, punched and suffocated Pravia, until he stopped moving, the detective said in the first-degree murder complaint.

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