Former CT Man Indicted In Nurse Murder Case

CONNECTICUT — A former New Haven man with a lengthy criminal history of assaulting women was indicted on murder charges after a 29-year-old woman was found dead the day after a Tinder date in New York during 2018.

Danueal Drayton, 31, was indicted by a Queens County grand jury and arraigned in Queens Supreme Court. He is charged with 18 criminal counts, including second-degree murder, fourth-degree grand larceny and sexual misconduct. He faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

Drayton is also charged with the attempted murder and rape of another woman in Los Angeles, according to the New York Times.

Nurse Samantha Stewart, 29, was found dead by her brother in her Queens apartment on July 17, 2018, according to the criminal complaint.

Stewart met Drayton on the dating app Tinder the night prior. The two went to her Queens home in the Springfield Gardens neighborhood. Drayton beat and strangled Stewart before he engaged in sexual conduct with her dead body, according to the criminal complaint.

Drayton then stole her credit cards and fled the scene in a white van that was located at Kennedy International Airport a day later, according to the criminal complaint. He allegedly used one of the cards to purchase a plane ticket to California. Drayton was apprehended in Los Angeles on July 24, 2018 by members of the NYPD Fugitive Task Force.

A Nassau County judge released Drayton from custody on July 5, 2018, despite objections from prosecutors, according to the New York Times. He was charged with slashing an ex-girlfriend's tires and sending her a threatening message. The Nassau County district attorney office hadn't received paperwork about Drayton's previous Connecticut convictions when the judge's decision was made.

Drayton was on probation in Connecticut during 2018, according to the Hartford Courant. He had choked his girlfriend in 2011 and then choked her a week later after he was released from custody, according to court records. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, suspended after serving three, and was released in November 2014.

Drayton was again arrested in May 2015 and was charged with the unlawfully restraining a woman and later violating a protective order. He pleaded guilty in December 2015 and was released from prison in April 2017. He also was sentenced to 90 days in prison in early 2018 after threatening a childhood friend.