Suspected Dating App Serial Killer Confesses To Six Murders

VAN NUYS, CA — A murder suspect accused of sexually assaulting and trying to kill a woman in North Hollywood reportedly told police he’s killed many times before.

Danueal Drayton, 27, of New Haven, Connecticut, pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that he sexually assaulted and attempted to murder a woman after they went on a date and headed back to her her North Hollywood apartment. Drayton was wanted for murder and rape in New York, and he was allegedly holding a woman hostage in North Hollywood last week when police caught up with him.

According to the New York Daily News, Drayton confessed to committing two murders in Connecticut, one in the Bronx, one in Suffolk County, one in either Queens or Nassau County, and possibly another California homicide.

"My body did this, not my mind," the paper quoted Drayton as telling investigators. "I didn't want to do this. My body made me do this."

According to the police source who, however, that it was unclear if Drayton was telling the truth about the additional crimes. Authorities believe Drayton preyed upon women he met through online dating sites.

When police caught up with him, Drayton was wanted for killing Samantha Stewart, a 29-year-old nurse found dead in her Queens apartment on July 17. Stewart was found dead by her father and brother, and authorities later determined that she had been strangled. Police now believe Drayton also raped a woman in Queens a month before Stewart was killed.

He seemed to be repeating his pattern of rape and strangulation in the North Hollywood attack, according to police. Drayton was arrested about 5 p.m. on July 24 by police in North Hollywood. He is accused of sexually assaulting the 28-year-old woman, trying to strangle her and refusing to let her leave her apartment, according to Deputy District Attorney Elan Carr.

The Daily News also reported that Drayton was released by authorities at a July 5 hearing in Nassau County after his arrest for choking his girlfriend in Inwood Park. The judge ruled that Drayton posed no flight risk, rejecting the county district attorney's call to hold him on $7,500 bail.

"It would have been impossible for the judge at that time to foresee the allegations that are presently unfolding and coming to light," a Nassau Court spokesman told the Daily News.

That was far from Drayton’s only brush with the law.

Drayton was supposed to be arraigned Friday, but he refused to board a bus meant to take him to court, according to ABC7. If he refuses to voluntarily appear for his rescheduled arraignment Monday, a court order will be issued to force him to appear.

He is charged with one count each of attempted murder, forcible rape, false imprisonment by violence and sexual penetration by a foreign object, and could face up to life in prison if convicted as charged in the North Hollywood case.

He has been bouncing in and out of Connecticut prisons for the past several years after multiple convictions. He was convicted of unlawful restraint and violation of a protective order in relation to a 2012 incident in New Haven. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

He also has a strangulation conviction for a 2011 incident in East Haven for which he was sentenced to three years in prison. He was convicted of violating a protective order in Waterbury during 2015 and was sentenced to two years in prison.

Most recently he has a harassment conviction for a February 2018 incident in New Haven. For his last Connecticut conviction he was sentenced to 90 days jail, execution suspended and probation for a year.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Rich Scinto contributed to this report.