SLAY SUSP IS COLLARED
Tip from News reader to kin helps cops crack case 4 months on run from B’klyn stab ends in Texas
A killer on the run for knifing a 20-year-old Brooklyn woman to death is behind bars thanks to a supersleuthing Daily News reader, officials and community leaders said Thursday.
Claudia Hospedales, 26, who goes by the nickname “Crazy Sensational,” was arrested in Texas for allegedly knifing Ebony Young in Bushwick on March 26.
Hospedales was nabbed in Arlington over a week ago after four months on the lam, cops said.
A Daily News reader tipped off Young’s family to the killer’s identity, community advocate Tony Herbert said.
Young’s mother Juana Walker was brought to tears Thursday when she helped announce an arrest was made in her daughter’s case.
“These are happy tears. My daughter finally got justice,” Walker said.
“We recently located one of the individuals responsible for that stabbing homicide ... a female in Texas and brought back to Brooklyn to face charges,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said Thursday.
A longtime Daily News reader, who lives in Florida, believed Hospedales was involved in the slaying, Herbert said.
Hospedales was apparently boasting about killing Young, and the Florida resident knew some of the people she was bragging to and connected the dots pretty quickly.
In fact, the woman had “a beef ” with Hospedales when she had recently visited the city, Herbert said.
She contacted Young’s older sister Joanna Stephens through social media after seeing her quoted in a Daily News story about Young ’s funeral.
“She saw the article from the Daily News with my husband and I in it,” Stephens said, adding that the tipster wants to remain anonymous.
“She reached out to me on social media and she told me that she might have some leads on who the person was,” she said. “I gave her my information and she called me immediately and she told me who she thinks the person might be, and it was the person.”
“We thank her so much ... and she’s also become a part of our family as well,” Stephens added.
Stephens, who was eightmonths pregnant with her daughter Summer when her sister died, quickly passed on the information to police, according to Herbert.
“This is a clear-cut example of how community, police and great journalists working together can help solve these crimes, thus sending the message that you may run but you can’t hide,” said Herbert, who acted as a liaison between the police, media and Young’s family since her death.
“I am truly happy that a family I stood with seeking justice for the murder of their beloved sister/daughter has just received this blessing ... the woman responsible has been found and is now sitting on Rikers Island.”
After identifying Hospedales as a potential suspect, NYPD detectives followed her welfare benefit card expenses through Florida and Georgia before grabbing her in Texas, according to sources with knowledge of the case.
When she was interviewed, she admitted to fighting with Young but said she never meant to hurt her, the sources said.
Witnesses told cops Young and Hospedales were yelling at each other between the sliding doors of the Hotel RL by Red Lion on Broadway when they came to blows.
Young ran into a nearby corner deli. Hospedales followed and stabbed her once in the chest, according to authorities.
Hospedales then sped off in a gray Mercedes-Benz driven by a man, witnesses said.
Medics rushed Young to Woodhull Hospital, where she died.
The two women knew each other prior to the fight but it wasn’t clear why they were arguing, sources said.
Stephens said she had never heard of Hospedales before the The News reader reached out to her.
“We don’t even know who this girl was, we never met her, we never heard of her,” she said. “Ebony had never mentioned this young lady.”
Shea said “there were several people involved” in Young’s death, including the man who drove Hospedales away from the crime scene.
Hospedales was hauled back to Brooklyn on July 25 and charged with manslaughter.
A judge ordered her held without bail.
“This girl is sick,” Walker said. “I’m just waiting for the day in court.”
Michael Cibella, Hospedales’ lawyer, told The News on Thursday it was “significant to note that the DA recognized from the outset she didn’t intend to kill anyone.
The DA charged her with manslaughter. By all accounts, there was someone else there who was apparently driving the car. Until I see all the evidence, I really can’t comment further.”
Stephens said she was glad that Hospedales was off the streets.
“I’m happy they caught her when they did because she was almost out of here and it would’ve been even more of a long journey catching her,” she said. “(The police) caught her and they kept their word.
“I feel like justice was served,” Stephens added. “It’s a whole new chapter to a whole new beginning, knowing that the girl is captured.”