UPDATE-AT LAST BUFFALO BIKE PATH RAPIST/MURDER IS ARRESTED

[BuffaloBill]

It took 23 years to get to this point, but authorities have finally captured and arrested the long illusive rapist/killer that has thwarded police for over 2 decades. Early this morning Mon, Jan 15, 2007 Buffalo police along with the FBI arrested 48 year old Altemio Sanchez of Cheektowaga,NY. Sanchez's DNA is a 100% match to the DNA of the previous murders of Yalem, Mazer, and Diver. The authorities zeroed in on Sanchez the last 10 days after numerous tips.DNA was obtained from Sanchez through a drinking glass, Sanchez had used while dining at the Cove Restaurant in Williamsville- not too far from were Diver was murdered in Sept. IRONICALLY the girl who PLAYED LINDA YALEM in the UM piece 13 years ago, was a waitress at that restaurant in which the police got the DNA....HOW FITTING IS THAT. Sanchez had 2 previous arrests in 1991 and 1999. He has been a crane operator for many years, thus he was in the area the whole time.

http://www.wgrz.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=44148

[crystaldawn]

Thanks, thats good news! Man that guy looks crazy with those bugged out eyes. :eek: You should also post this on the update thread Buffalo Bill. :)

[DarkDante]

All I remember is that the original composite sketch for this case looked like a real pissed off version of Super Mario from the videogames (not the hockey player).

Just a random observation

[An 80s Guy]

This is great news!!!

[nohwheregirl]

Awesome. Yeah, I'm glad that slimeball looks surprised in his mugshot. He probably thought he was invincible.

[BuffaloBill]

Incredibly Sanchez has pled not guilty and hasnt confessed to anything. Kind of find this surprissing cause most serial killers confess right away and start spilling their guts to the crimes when caught.

[kadrmas15]

Did Sanchez get bail set and stuff? I imagine for him it is probably a million dollars or more. However that is not unusual for a person to plead not guilty at an arraignment. It is unusual though for someone to keep all that to themselves and not talk to the cops about it. He must have lawyered up right away and his lawyer I am assuming told him to shut up. If Sanchez insists on taking this to trial it will probably be over a year before it gets there. As we have seen with Phil Spector people can delay trials for years. Spector recently won another appeal, it will be 4 years next month since he was charged and his trial was supposed to start this month but has now been delayed until March but who knows when it will start.

[BuffaloBill]

I'm 99.9% sure he did not get bail set. I think the chances of him getting bail, set are about as good as you and me suiting up for the Bills in this upcomming Super Bowl in 3 weeks. Interesting to note his family , wife and 2 kids are standing by him 100%.

[Kane]

Check out the New York Times article at the following link. It briefly mentions the fact that UM profiled the case.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/nyregion/21buffalo.html

[Composite Sketch]

This is the best news I've heard in ages. I am so happy that he's finally behind bars.

That mugshot of his is creepy and he looks EXACTLY like that terrifying sketch (except he has less hair now), especially in the eyes!

[BuffaloBill]

Perhaps truth indeed is stranger than fiction...Anthony Capozzi age 49 served 22 years in prison for 2 rapes commited in 1984 in Delaware Park in Buffalo. Both the victims positively ID'ed Capozzi as the rapist. Case closed, right ? Well at least till a few weeks ago. Recently Buffalo police decided just to make sure as they looked at old DNA evidence in the case, just to make sure they could put an end any doubt or question that this was their man all along. Now to the DA's credit and other local crime police who were involved in the case they had the GUTS to verify DNA evidence. Amazingly the DNA came back as a match for one Altemio Sanchez---better known as the alledged Bike Path Rapist. Luckily for Capozzi law enforcers and the DA conceeded they had the Wrong person in jail all these years- and will soon be freed and cleared 100% of all wrong doing in this case. It had been long rumored for years that the wrong person may have gone to jail, but there was no proof until old DNA evidence was finally tested. Interestingly enough both men grew up on in the same part of town and may have even gone to the same high school....both men looked strikingly similar in facial appearence in the early 80's. Police now feel that unsolved rape cases going as far back as the early 70's could be linked to Sanchez--totaling about 20 in all. Thirty years of terror could be the total of this maniacs spree. On a personal note, I knew of this possible release of Capozzi a few months back but I didnt want to mention it on this board cause I didnt want to jinx things. My sister and I knew the family very well , growing up in the same neighborhood and belonging to the same church parish. I went to school with his younger brother in grade school and high school, while my sister is a few years younger than Anthony attended grade school with him. Her and her circle friends always thought he was innocent of the crimes. Bottom line both his parents and family are about as respectable and classy as people could be. They fought 22 years for his freedom and they finally got to see their sons freedom a reality. I Give credit to all the authorities involved admitting a mistake was made, and they admitted it, unlike some police municipalities we often see keeping inocent people in jail just not to make themselves look bad. Here's a link to the story -- http://www.wgrz.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=46641

[Awsi Dooger]

Yeah, really charming. They admitted they made a mistake and cost Capozzi his freedom and reputation for 22 years. How many lifetimes does he have, anyway? Just a minor error.

Now those prosecutors should do 22 years. Sorry, but that's the way I see it. And it's a bunch of hogwash they did such a great job of rectifying a mistake. That article says Capozzi's legal team was looking for physical evidence in the EARLY '90s to exonerate him. But it wasn't located until very recently. Another minor error. I'm sure the authorities really tried to help. A metal drawer in the pathology department. Yeah, who could have thought to look there?

Now the media needs to do its job and retreat to that Capozzi trial. Dig up all the transcripts and print the exact comments made by the prosecutors to convict Capozzi, all the emphatic point blank statements of his guilt. The people involved in wrongful convictions should be publicly disgraced.

[The Third Man]

Well, this article (http://www.buffalonews.com/101/story/42936.html) has a lot more on the prosecution of the case. Apparently Capozzi "resembled" Sanchez (other than weighing about 70-80 pounds more, and with a facial scar that Sanchez didn't have), was hanging around at least one site of a rape, and--crucially--was being treated for mental health problems at the time. The last one I think did it for him. Cops in the 80's weren't too keen on "crazies."

Yes, heads should roll on this one. Even the cop who was lauded for "catching" him now claims that he wasn't sure all these years. Yeah, right.

[LooksLikeCRicci]

Now those prosecutors should do 22 years. Sorry, but that's the way I see it. And it's a bunch of hogwash they did such a great job of rectifying a mistake. That article says Capozzi's legal team was looking for physical evidence in the EARLY '90s to exonerate him. But it wasn't located until very recently. Another minor error. I'm sure the authorities really tried to help. A metal drawer in the pathology department. Yeah, who could have thought to look there?

Now the media needs to do its job and retreat to that Capozzi trial. Dig up all the transcripts and print the exact comments made by the prosecutors to convict Capozzi, all the emphatic point blank statements of his guilt. The people involved in wrongful convictions should be publicly disgraced.

Yowza. Have a heart, Awsi! :eek:

In all seriousness, though, I agree with the thoughts that are being expressed on the board. While I don't think the prosecutors should serve time in prison, I do believe that they should be held accountable for sending an innocent man to prison. One of the things that I don't think I'm going to be able to change about the legal system is that when you have a high profile crime, such as the Buffalo Bike Path Rapist, there is an extraordinary amount of pressure put on law enforcement officials to make an arrest. It angers to me no end when an arrest is made based on shoddy evidence simply to appease the public and get someone behind bars. :mad:

[BuffaloBill]

Well, this article ([url] Cops in the 80's weren't too keen on "crazies."

You hit the nail right on the head. Indeed he was an easy suspect and target with the cops cause they probably felt like ...." we got the sicko lets put him away." Interestingly enough the prosecutor for the case is now a judge. Go figure.......

[Awsi Dooger]

One of the things that I don't think I'm going to be able to change about the legal system is that when you have a high profile crime, such as the Buffalo Bike Path Rapist, there is an extraordinary amount of pressure put on law enforcement officials to make an arrest. It angers to me no end when an arrest is made based on shoddy evidence simply to appease the public and get someone behind bars. :mad:

Bingo. Checkmark Charlie. Now we can move to something else.

And while I don't really think prosecutors should face return time in jail, I darn sure stand by the second half of my previous post, that the Buffalo media needs to prioritize digging up every word of the original trial and plaster all the damning comments by prosecutors toward Capozzi all over TV and print. I'd make it the lead story for a week or more. And confront the prosecutors with their own words to see if they have any comment now. Put them on the defensive and see how it feels.

Innocent people have a justifiable fear of being suspected. I saw it with my friend Larry's murder three years ago. I talked to the detectives a few times over the phone and sent maybe a half dozen detailed emails. The detectives wanted to speak to some of my friends, people who also knew Larry, to get more info. But other than two guys they balked at it and refused to speak to the detectives. They told me why and I understood it. In this town it's not like you have a normal lifestyle and can account for your movements and activities day to day or hour to hour. It wouldn't take much for a phony eyewitness identification, like the Buffalo case, or for some local creep to whisper a name due to an old grudge.

[BuffaloBill]

Sanchez spared everyone grief and pleated guilty today to 3 counts of murder-confessing to all 3 murders- Yalem, Mazur, and Diver. He will be sentenced in August to 75 years to life. He however refused to fess up to the 20 some odd rape cases he is suspected of from 1977 through 2000's.
Because of the 5 year stats limit in New York State for rape, unless he confesses to these crimes, Sanchez can never be charged with them. Sanchez's wife, who stood by him these past serveral months, issued a statement through her atty stating how sorry she is for her husband's actions, and she expressed her sorrow and apoligized to the victims' families.

[boco357]

75 years isn't long enough.

[noah82]

Man Pleads Guilty to 3 N.Y. Murders

By CAROLYN THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

(05-16) 11:33 PDT Buffalo, N.Y. (AP) --


A man prosecutors suspect of preying on more than a dozen women as the "Bike Path Rapist" pleaded guilty Wednesday to murdering three women since 1990, including two whose bodies were found on bike paths.


Altemio Sanchez, 49, was arrested earlier this year after DNA evidence linked him to a series of rapes and killings in the Buffalo area.


Judge Christopher Burns asked Sanchez about each of the three victims.


"I strangled her," he said three times, weeping and barely audible.


Sanchez's wife sobbed as he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in each death. He faces 75 years to life in prison at sentencing Aug. 2.


"It is unimaginable to us that someone we have truly loved and respected for so many years could be capable of such violent acts," his wife, Kathleen Sanchez, and her family said in a statement. "We are sincerely sorry and filled with grief for your tragic losses."


Sanchez admitted killing University at Buffalo student Linda Yalem, who was raped and strangled on a bike path near campus in 1990; Majane Mazur, who was found raped and strangled on a Buffalo street two years later; and Joan Diver, who was strangled along a bike path last fall.


"The case against him in each of the three homicides was overwhelming," Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark said after the pleas.


Defense attorney Andrew LoTempio said Sanchez wanted to spare his family from a trial and decided to plead guilty after reviewing the DNA evidence against him.


Clark said investigators have tied Sanchez to 8 or 9 rapes and suspect him in a dozen more dating back to the late 1970s.


Another man served 22 years in prison for two rapes that are now tied through DNA to Sanchez. Anthony Capozzi's convictions were erased last month.


Sanchez was arrested after investigators reviewed a 1981 victim's report that included her attacker's license plate number. The car belonged to Sanchez's uncle, who had said at the time that the car had not been driven.


Twenty-six years later, the uncle said his nephew had borrowed the car. Investigators then followed Sanchez and secretly collected his DNA from drinking glasses at a restaurant in January. He was arrested two days later.

[mozartpc27]

Bingo. Checkmark Charlie. Now we can move to something else.

And while I don't really think prosecutors should face return time in jail, I darn sure stand by the second half of my previous post, that the Buffalo media needs to prioritize digging up every word of the original trial and plaster all the damning comments by prosecutors toward Capozzi all over TV and print. I'd make it the lead story for a week or more. And confront the prosecutors with their own words to see if they have any comment now. Put them on the defensive and see how it feels.

Innocent people have a justifiable fear of being suspected. I saw it with my friend Larry's murder three years ago. I talked to the detectives a few times over the phone and sent maybe a half dozen detailed emails. The detectives wanted to speak to some of my friends, people who also knew Larry, to get more info. But other than two guys they balked at it and refused to speak to the detectives. They told me why and I understood it. In this town it's not like you have a normal lifestyle and can account for your movements and activities day to day or hour to hour. It wouldn't take much for a phony eyewitness identification, like the Buffalo case, or for some local creep to whisper a name due to an old grudge.

My girlfriend and I were discussing thi just the other night. At the very least, there ought to be some kind of automatic settlement for someone exonerated of a crime they served time for --- what's aman's life worth a year? $50,000? $100,000? Not to mention the fact that while in prison, when everyone else is building up work experience, learning new skills, etc., a person in prison is just stuck. Someone released from prison today after being exonerated who has served 20 years will come out basically looking for work with 1987's training and technological skills. How is this person supposed to get a job?

Anyone released from prison because the state put them there even though they shouldn't have been ought to, at the very least, truly live off the state from then on out. The only problem with that solution is that it will make DAs even less likely than they are right now to make a mistake --- which is why you need judges willing to order reviews of evidence.

[Corky Kneivel]

Sanchez was arrested after investigators reviewed a 1981 victim's report that included her attacker's license plate number. The car belonged to Sanchez's uncle, who had said at the time that the car had not been driven.
Twenty-six years later, the uncle said his nephew had borrowed the car. Investigators then followed Sanchez and secretly collected his DNA from drinking glasses at a restaurant in January. He was arrested two days later.


WOW!!

26 years ago they had the car used in the case identified, but the uncle , either kknowingly or unknowingly, misled the police and there that evidence sat.

For almost 3 decades that evidence sat...

and sat...

and sat...

...then while going over all the evidence, probably for the millionth time, they decide to ask the car's owner, once again, what he can tell them about why his car was identified as being used in the attack.

It boggles the mind. What if, on the day that the investigators decided to re-interview Sanchez' uncle, had decided that they had already bothered th eman enough? What if 12 years ago someone, while cleaning out old evidence and bogus leads, had decided that this information was no good as the car's owner had verified that the car had not been driven? There are so many little picayune factors that are involved in investigations coming together for a successful conclusion...so many minute details that only reveal themselves after the second, fourth, fortieth, or one hundredth viewing.

Sorry, I'm rambling but stuff like this just blows me away.

[kadrmas15]

I am sort of surprised that Sanchez took such a plea bargain. Obviously he will basically have LWOP, I would think that he would have tried to get concurrent sentences of 25 to life so he would be eligible for parole at age 74. However even if he got concurrent sentences as a serial rapist and serial killer he would never get paroled.

Yes I agree with Awsi about Capuzzi. It is horrible what happened to him and if you take it at one thousand dollars a day for every day of wrongful imprisonment Capuzzi would be owed at least 8.3 million dollars. I think Capuzzi should not only get that but get 50 grand a year minimum from the state every year for at least every year he was wrongfully convicted if not for the rest of his life.

[Wamisto]

WOW!!

26 years ago they had the car used in the case identified, but the uncle , either kknowingly or unknowingly, misled the police and there that evidence sat.

For almost 3 decades that evidence sat...

and sat...

and sat...

...then while going over all the evidence, probably for the millionth time, they decide to ask the car's owner, once again, what he can tell them about why his car was identified as being used in the attack.

It boggles the mind. What if, on the day that the investigators decided to re-interview Sanchez' uncle, had decided that they had already bothered the man enough? What if 12 years ago someone, while cleaning out old evidence and bogus leads, had decided that this information was no good as the car's owner had verified that the car had not been driven? There are so many little picayune factors that are involved in investigations coming together for a successful conclusion...so many minute details that only reveal themselves after the second, fourth, fortieth, or one hundredth viewing.

Sorry, I'm rambling but stuff like this just blows me away.

This is what struck me the most. Never mind the DNA evidence that was stashed away apparently unawares in some drawer for years before someone found it by accident. Never mind that the evidence against Capozzi was scant, and that the lead investigator had doubts. No, the thing that gets me is the evidence was there back in 1981, before anyone was murdered.

Corky's points are good, but I personally take issue with the detectives who interviewed his uncle in 1981. Did they not ask him if anyone else had access to his vehicle? And even if they did ask and he said "no", did they not think that perhaps this guy was covering for a friend or family member? Did they not think to demand this guy give them a list of names of family members and friends or dig to get this information?

My question is, why did they not dig deeper? The victim ID'd the rapist and the car he was driving two days after the rape. So if you find the owner of the car, keep digging and you'll find the perp real quick. Seems self-evident to me, a layman when it comes to criminal investigations. The only thing I can think that accounts for why they did not is, well, laziness.

Classic example of shoddy police work, misplaced prosecutorial zeal (the prosecutor is a judge now?!?!? probably in part for getting "successful" convictions like this), and the incompetence and stupidity of jurors.