Quote
SPRINGFIELD GARDENS, Queens — He's accused of murdering a well-loved nurse, and now, Danueal Drayton is suspected of carrying out other heinous acts -- including other homicides -- through similar methods. It's the direction that a criminal investigation of Drayton has taken, and one of its strongest supporters is Kenneth Stewart, the father of the murdered nurse, Samantha Stewart.
Drayton, 27, is suspected of meeting Ms. Stewart, 29, via a dating website. After she had a couple of encounters with him, she may have spurned him, detectives have said. That may have prompted him to torture and kill her, they theorize, at her home on 145th Road.
The killing, according to investigators and court records, happened while Drayton had been released on his own recognizance for criminal trespass and strangulation of his ex-girlfriend in Inwood, in Nassau County, Long Island. In that case, prosecutors had sought to keep Drayton in jail on $7,500 bond. The judge chose to allow Drayton to go, pending trial.
"You can't let this guy walk out of jail scot-free, without a bond," said Kenneth Stewart on Friday afternoon, in front of the home in which the nurse and medical school student had been killed on July 17th. "My daughter would be living today!" he exclaimed.