Concetta Russo-Carriero Phillip Grant White Plains, NY

- The Victim -

- Concetta Russo-Carriero - Age 54 -

- 1951 - 2005 † -

- Level 3 (High - Risk) Sex Offender -

- Phillip Grant - Age 43 -

- Faces Life in Prison -

- At his Felony Hearing, Grant Stated: "As long as she had blond hair and blue eyes, she had to die."! -

- Phillip Grant Stated he is "at War with the White Race!" -

July 6, 2005

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.

- This indictment marks the first time a homicide will be prosecuted as a hate crime in Westchester county, New York, since hate-crimes legislation was adopted in New York State in 2000. -

- First Hate Crime Murder Trial in Westchester County -

- Phillip Grant - Age 43 -

- Could be free in 20 years -

- Phillip Grant was Thrown out of a Homeless Shelter Because he refused to take a Mental Competency Test! -

- Convicted Rapist Indicted for Hate Crime

in Stabbing-Murder of Concetta Russo-Carriero! -

By Jonathan Bandler
The Journal News
Timeline

July 2003: Phillip Grant is paroled from state prison after serving the maximum in a 1980 conviction for raping three women in the Bronx. He is classified as a Level 3, or high-risk, sex offender and moves to the homeless shelter at the Westchester County Airport.

September 2003: Grant's parole supervision ends.

April 2005: Grant is removed from the airport shelter after refusing a mental health evaluation. He begins staying nights at the nearby drop-in shelter and is bused each day to and from downtown White Plains.

June 29: Shortly after 1 p.m., Concetta Russo-Carriero is grabbed as she walks to her car on the seventh floor of the city garage at the Galleria mall and stabbed in the chest. Grant is arrested minutes later, two blocks away, on a charge of second-degree murder.

July 5: A videotaped statement by Grant in which he tells detectives Russo-Carriero "had to die" because she was white is played at his felony hearing in White Plains City Court.

July 26: A grand jury indictment charging Grant with second-degree murder as a hate crime is announced.

Original publication: July 27, 2005

White Plains, NY — A homeless sex offender who told police he was waging a race war when he fatally stabbed a legal secretary in a city parking garage next to the Galleria mall has been charged with murder as a hate crime, Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced yesterday.

A grand jury indictment charged Phillip Grant with second-degree murder in the June 29 slaying of Concetta Russo-Carriero, a 56-year-old White Plains woman.

Grant, 43, told police he wanted to kill a white person, according to a taped statement played at his felony hearing this month.

"He told police he killed Concetta because she was white; he would have killed more white people if he had a gun," Pirro said.

The indictment marks the first time a homicide has been prosecuted as a hate crime in the county since hate-crimes legislation was adopted in New York in 2000.

Russo-Carriero had just left work at the Main Street law firm of Stephens, Baroni, Reilly and Lewis and was heading to her car on the seventh floor of the garage when Grant is alleged to have grabbed her, stabbed her twice in the chest and fled. He was arrested moments later on Grand Street. Police recovered a knife nearby that Grant is alleged to have wiped off, wrapped in a black shirt and dumped in an alleyway along Court Street.

Later that day, Grant told White Plains Detective Rick Lee in the videotaped statement that he did not know Russo-Carriero, but that "as long as she had blond hair and blue eyes, she had to die." He said he had no remorse "because she was white" and that he wanted the death penalty "but wanted to kill somebody white first."

Grant is a Level 3, or high-risk, sex offender who served more than 20 years in state prison after raping three women in the Bronx in 1979. The former Mount Vernon resident was paroled in July 2003 and was spending nights at the county's drop-in center at the Westchester County Airport after being removed from a homeless shelter there earlier this year.

Pirro announced the indictment at a news conference with White Plains police officials. Public Safety Commissioner Frank Straub extended condolences to the victim's family.

"This was clearly a horrific act by someone who should not have been out in public," Straub said.

The killing has intensified efforts to get state legislators to enact a civil-commitment law that would permit the confinement of violent sexual predators in secure mental hospitals after they are released from prison. Yesterday, Russo-Carriero's two sons appeared at a hearing on the law in Bronxville, urging that it be adopted and be called "Connie's Law" in tribute to their mother.

"My mother's death will have served a purpose," Michael Russo told lawmakers. "I beg you not to wait for a tragedy such as this to happen again before taking action."

None of the victim's relatives were at the news conference, but Vincent David Scala, Russo-Carriero's cousin, said afterward that "the family is very pleased that (Grant) has been indicted on the hate crime because it carries a stiffer prison sentence."

If Grant were convicted of second-degree murder as a hate crime, he would face a minimum of 20 years to life in state prison and a maximum of 25 years to life. The charge usually carries a minimum sentence of 15 years to life.

Grant is being held in the Westchester County jail without bail. His legal aid lawyer, Darien J. Zoppo, declined to comment yesterday on the indictment.

- City of White Plains and Westchester County seen as Negligent and Therefore Liable! -

- Slain Woman's Family Sues City of White Plains, New York, for $15 million -

By Bill Hughes
The Journal News

Original publication: September 23, 2005

White Plains — Relatives of the woman who allegedly was stabbed to death by a homeless, registered sex offender in a city parking garage in June filed a notice of claim yesterday demanding $15 million from the city of White Plains and Westchester County charging that negligence on behalf of both governmental entities contributed to the killing of Concetta Russo-Carriero.

The claim contends county officials should have provided either supervision or treatment for murder suspect Phillip Grant, a convicted rapist, who was kicked out of the county-run homeless shelter for failing to comply with a mental-health evaluation. The city is faulted for not providing better security at the parking garage adjacent to The Galleria mall where Russo-Carriero was killed.

Grant, who is black, told police in a videotaped statement that he had a death wish but wanted to kill a white person before he died.

The family has hired New York attorney John Q. Kelly, who has represented relatives of newspaper heiress Anne Scripps Douglas, who was bludgeoned by her husband on New Year's Eve in 1993, and Nicole Brown Simpson, whose family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against O.J. Simpson.

"What we have learned over the past three months is that the county and/or the city, in an act that in our opinion was reckless and negligent, dropped this dangerous sex offender off at the mall every day," said Vincent Scala, an attorney and Russo-Carriero's cousin. "Then with no monitoring, no security, no surveillance, no nothing, they let him wander around the city and hoped for the best. Hopefully, no one will get robbed, or assaulted or, as in Connie's case, killed."

Russo-Carriero's slaying reignited an ongoing debate about civil commitment laws, and Scala, along with the woman's two sons, delivered petitions with more than 10,000 signatures to the state Legislature this week in support of changing state law to allow the detention of certain convicts beyond their maximum sentence.

Susan Tolchin, Westchester County's director of communications, said that normally the county does not comment on pending litigation, but it made an exception in this case.

"We grieve with the family of Concetta Russo-Carriero," Tolchin said. "Her death should not be in vain, which is why County Executive (Andrew) Spano has spoken at hearings across the state for civil commitment so that these predators do not roam our streets."

Paul Wood, the executive officer for the city of White Plains, did not return a message seeking comment.

The claim details the circumstances that led to the killing and faults the two governments for not only failing to protect Russo-Carriero from Grant, but also failing to protect Grant from himself.

One section reads, "The County of Westchester negligently, recklessly and carelessly dropped off a homeless person with known criminal propensities and prone to criminal behavior who was at high risk to himself or others without delivering mental health services to him."

The county's policy of busing the homeless back and forth from a homeless shelter at the Westchester County Airport to White Plains and Yonkers every day came under harsh criticism after the killing.

The notice of claim was served on the county attorney's office and the corporation counsel for White Plains, demanding that the $15 million settlement be paid, or a lawsuit will follow.

Comment:

Although this case has generated a lot of articles on the Internet, most of them are in the New York City area, since Westchester County borders on NYC. For one thing, this case has gotten a lot of coverage, because there is a lot of news media in the NYC area, and for another, because of its vicious nature - this was a totally unprovoked, random killing, committed by a deranged Black male, who is a convicted, level-three, sex offender. And if that's not enough, the perpetrator stated that he killed Concetta Russo-Carriero because she was "White and had blue eyes." This notwithstanding, it still took the prosecution a month to reach the decision that Phillip Grant should be charged with a hate crime.

It certainly seems that the requirements for Blacks to be charged with a hate crime are set very high - the Black killer has to come out and state publicly on video-tape that he killed someone explicitly because they were a White person. I'm sure that the criteria for White-on-Black crime would be much lower.

Despite all of the coverage on the Internet, this has not been a national news story and there is not even a photograph of the killer available on the Internet - our photos come from New York City Newspapers - (and, only one tiny, blurry photo of the victim is available). The trial will be coming up in the spring of 2006, but it is still not likely to be a national news story, because the radical news media do not want the public to know that there are Black males out there running around, who are "at war" with the White population. This means that anyone could be the next random victim, and the radicals who own the news media do not want to panic the White population.

The penalty for second-degree murder, by the way, is 15 years to life. The penalty for second-degree murder as a hate crime is 20 years to life. This means that Phillip Grant could be released from prison when he is 63 years old, and, because Mr. Grant is "waging a war against White people," as he has stated, he'll still have plenty of time to kill more White people when he is released. Again, if this were a White-on-Black crime, the killer would be either executed or put in prison for life without the chance for parole.

But then, New York State has rescinded the death penalty, because the New York State Supreme Court has deemed it to be unconstitutional. How many people were concerned about the constitutional rights of Concetta Russo-Carriero when they let this deranged person, Phillip Grant, back out on the streets in July, 2003, when he was paroled from state prison after having served 23 years for three counts of rape? Evidently, not very many. What about the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens - or do we count any more?

Yours Faithfully, Liberty