Suspect on tape: Victim 'had to die'


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Suspect on tape: Victim 'had to die'

WHITE PLAINS ? Concetta Russo-Carriero "had to die" because she was white, the man accused of killing her told White Plains detectives in a 45-minute videotaped statement during which he also claims to have killed others and says he is at war with the white race.

"I never seen her before, and I didn't care," Phillip Grant said on the tape, which was played at his felony hearing in City Court yesterday. "As long as she had blond hair and blue eyes, she had to die."

Grant said he knew he would get caught.

"I want the death penalty," he said. "I want to die. But I wanted to kill somebody white first."

Grant, charged with second-degree murder and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon in the fatal June 29 stabbing, sat impassively while the tape was played, occasionally whispering to his legal aid lawyer, Darien J. Zoppo.

In the statement, recorded some five hours after the 1:15 p.m slaying, he said that, beginning at 11 a.m. that day, he walked around the Lexington Avenue-Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard garage, looking for a victim.

"I was thinking that the first person I see this morning that looks white, I'm killing them," he said. Later, the convicted rapist said he did not approach an older white woman walking through the garage "because she had already lived her life."

"I wanted to kill somebody who lived a lily-white lifestyle and was a closet bigot," he said on the tape.

Courtroom visitors could not see the video monitor, but they could clearly hear Grant's statements to Detective Rick Lee, who conducted the interview at police headquarters. Grant spoke calmly and matter-of-factly as he described how he decided to kill Russo-Carriero after he said she thrust a stairwell door toward him as he was walking inside on Level 7.

"I have no remorse whatsoever, because she was white," he said, adding that he believed he was fighting a race war.

Russo-Carriero's funeral was held yesterday, several hours before Grant's hearing.

Asked what he thought would happen now, Grant said on the tape: "It doesn't matter to me no more. Whatever they do, these (gesturing to his handcuffs) better not come off. My only regret is that I don't know anything about biological weapons. Get the death penalty for me, and get on with it."

The state's high court has voided New York's death penalty statute, which was signed into law 10 years ago. No one has been executed as a result of it.

During his rambling statement, Grant claimed that his mother was raped by whites when he was a child and that, although he's had white friends, they all turned out to be racists. He also said that he's spent most of his time in White Plains since he was released from state prison, and that a number of people regularly follow him around, calling him a rapist and hurling racial slurs at him.

Grant, convicted of three rapes in the Bronx in 1980 and of assaulting another inmate in prison, was released in 2003 after serving 23 years. The one-time Mount Vernon resident, deemed a Level 3 sex offender, was living at the Westchester County Airport homeless shelter until April, when he was forced out for refusing to submit to a mental-health exam.

Since then, he's stayed at the county's drop-in overnight shelter at the airport. Those needing a place to stay are picked up in White Plains and Yonkers each night and dropped off in those cities in the morning.

Grant said in his statement that he killed "three or four people" during the 1970s and that, since his release from prison, he had tried to hijack a car in New Rochelle and had cut a woman's throat, killing her, because she wouldn't move out of his way on a sidewalk. He did not provide details of those crimes on the tape, but city police and the county prosecutor's office said they were investigating his statements.

"We are consulting with the appropriate agencies to verify the validity of the claims Mr. Grant has made," said Inspector Daniel Jackson of the White Plains police.

After the hearing, city Judge Eric Press ordered that the case be presented to a grand jury. When Grant asked if he could testify before the grand jury, the judge suggested he take the matter up with his lawyer.

Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro said the grand jury would determine whether to charge Grant with a hate crime, which would increase the minimum sentence for second-degree murder from 15 to 20 years in prison. The maximum sentence would remain 25 years to life.

Pirro called Grant's statement "chilling."

"The videotape speaks for itself," she said. "The victim in this case did not have a chance. (Grant) was determined to commit this crime."

Zoppo, the defense lawyer, avoided reporters after yesterday's hearing and did not return a call seeking comment late in the afternoon. Grant was being held in the Westchester County jail in Valhalla without bail.

Source

This happened at the mall I frequent. Where all of my family members frequent... This isn't the first murder or act of violence there, but the first of this kind.

Where is Al Sharpton and his Hate Crime outrage?

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Hahaha you'll never see Al Sharpton or any black leader to have this animal be charged with hate crimes. But when 3 whites say the N word and beat up a kid who was stealing a car and charge him with a hate crime..... double standards.....

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btw the guy is homeless. The homeless shelter which is somewhere in a airport outside of White Plains takes it upon themselves to bus guys like him to White Plains. Yes, they bus homeless people, some of them who are convicted criminals, to White Plains to spend the day.

Yeah yeah yeah he killed her in "reverse racism" who cares. There was no reabilitation, no attempt to get this guy off the streets (if anything they planted him in the crime scene), and whadaya know, he kills someone. He's just saying all this racist stuff because he wants the death penalty and a hate crime is a good way to get it.

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Let the racist ****** fry.

There is no such thing as "reverse racism". Racism is not tied to any one race. I'm sick and tired of hearing that phrase being used. It is so often used while trying to justify racist behavior by a visible minority. I don't give a crap if you are white, black, blue or purple. If you do something against another person that is racially motivated, you are a racist.

Whoever coined that phrase is a closet racist/bigot themselves.

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Whoever coined that phrase is a closet racist/bigot themselves.

586172676[/snapback]

Yeah there's no such thing as reverse racism, just like there's no such thing as a minority, just like there's no such thing as race. I'm just speaking in terms everyone adheres to.

Edited by PseudoRandomDragon
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I don't give a crap if you are white, black, blue or purple. If you do something against another person that is racially motivated, you are a racist.

586172676[/snapback]

I could not agree more with you.

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