Trial in Troy woman’s killing delayed
TROY, N. Y. » The trial of a Troyman accused of killing his 21- year- old former stepdaughter, packing her body in a suitcase and throwing that suitcase into the Hudson River in 2015 has been put on hold for a week.
Jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday in Rensselaer County Court in the case against Johnny Oquendo, 39, who is charged with second- degree murder, criminal obstruction of breathing and unlawful concealment of a human corpse in the death of Noel Alkaramla. Officials in the Rensselaer County District Attorney’s Office said Monday morning, however, jury selection was postponed to Monday, Sept. 25, because of a death in the family of prosecutor Andrew
Botts.
Alkaramla’s nude body was found in a suitcase pulled from the Hudson River near the USS Slater in Albany on Dec. 29, 2015, more than a month after she disappeared after leaving work about 10 p. m. Nov. 21, 2015, from Verdile’s restaurant in Lansingburgh. The only sign of Alkaramla after she was captured that night on surveillance video while leaving Verdile’s was some personal items found the next morning near her home in the area of Washington and 4th streets, though a co- worker told investigators they had given Alkaramla a ride to Oquendo’s apartment at 170 3rd St. that night.
A neighbor of Oquendo told investigators they heard loud arguing from Oquendo’s apartment the evening Alkaramla disappeared, followed by loud banging and screams. Another neighbor said they saw Oquendo a short time later struggling to remove a large suitcase fromhis apartment.
During an autopsy, blood and semen was recovered from Alkaramla’s body that investigators said matched a profile on the state’s DNA database provided by Oquendo because he is a convicted felon. Oquendo served 16 years of a 25- year prison sentence for robbery and assault before being released on parole in 2014.
Oquendo has been held in the Rensselaer County jail on a parole violation since Dec. 4, 2016, after being identified as the prime suspect in the case based on a statement by Alkaramla’s fiancée, Sara Moore, that Alkaramla was supposed tomeet Oquendo after leaving her job that night. Moore later killed herself, with her body found June 24 in her Troy home.