{"id":2684,"date":"2025-10-15T00:39:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T00:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/2684\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T00:39:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T00:39:06","slug":"maniac-who-allegedly-killed-burned-elderly-nyc-couple-snatched-yankees-ball-from-inside-their-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/2684\/","title":{"rendered":"Maniac who allegedly killed, burned elderly NYC couple snatched Yankees ball from inside their home"},"content":{"rendered":"

The maniac who allegedly slaughtered and burned an elderly Queens couple<\/a> inside their home snatched a souvenir New York Yankees baseball while fleeing the carnage, according to prosecutors and sources.<\/p>\n

Jamel McGriff, 42, was hit with a 50-count indictment Tuesday for allegedly torturing Frank <\/a>Olton, 76, and his 77-year-old wife, Maureen, inside their Bellerose home before going on a shopping spree on their dime, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced in a statement.<\/p>\n

Jamel McGriff, 42, was hit with a 50-count indictment Tuesday for allegedly torturing Frank and Maureen Olton\u00a0inside their Bellerose home before going on a shopping spree on their dime. Kevin C Downs forThe New York Post<\/p>\n

McGriff snatched the baseball belonging to Olton \u2014 who he allegedly stabbed several times while tied to a pole in the basement \u2014 after forcing his way into the couple\u2019s home on Sept. 8, the indictment said.<\/p>\n

The baseball was a 2001 New York Yankees ball that appeared to be stamped with an autograph on behalf of the team and was on display inside the home, according to law enforcement sources. <\/p>\n

McGriff also allegedly stole the couple\u2019s credit cards and phones while fleeing the home he allegedly set ablaze, authorities said.<\/p>\n

He was spotted walking with a duffel bag from the home, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

The alleged killer \u2014 who was inside the home for about five hours \u2014 is accused of going straight to Macy\u2019s in Herald Square to purchase $796.10 worth of clothing on Olton\u2019s card, while providing the cashier with his personal loyalty number for the transactions, prosecutors added.<\/p>\n

McGriff snatched the baseball belonging to 76-year-old Frank Olton, credit cards, and cellphones, after forcing his way into the couple\u2019s home on Sept. 8th. Obtained by the NY Post<\/p>\n

McGriff also pawned off their two cellphones at a Bronx check-cashing store and kicked up his feet at the Regal Union Square movie theater\u00a0to watch \u201cLight of the World\u201d\u00a0<\/a>\u2014 a 2-D animated story of Jesus \u2014 on the Oltons\u2019 dime, according to authorities and prosecutors.<\/p>\n

He was nabbed on Sept. 10 after cops used surveillance footage from the theater to track him down in Times Square.<\/p>\n

During his arraignment last month, prosecutors revealed that Maureen Olton was still alive when McGriff allegedly set fire to the couple\u2019s home.<\/p>\n

She was found in the living room with a fractured larynx and soot in her trachea and one lung, authorities said.<\/p>\n

The alleged killer has 11 prior convictions, including four for violent felonies, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

McGriff was on parole following his release from prison in 2023 after serving 17 years of a 20-year sentence for armed robbery and sex crimes.<\/p>\n

McGriff faces a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted. James Keivom<\/p>\n

He was\u00a0out of prison for more than a year<\/a>\u00a0when the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision received word from the NYPD that the career criminal failed to register his address as required on the sex offender registry in 2024, a department spokesman said.<\/p>\n

He is now charged with 50 counts, including 13 counts of first-degree murder, two counts of murder in the second degree, two counts of kidnapping in the first degree, among several others charges for the callous killings, court records indicate.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to the charges, on a Monday morning in a quiet neighborhood, the defendant forced his way into the home of Frank and Maureen Olton, made multiple attempts to transfer money from their bank account, murdered them, and set the house ablaze before fleeing with their phones and credit cards,\u201d Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe used the credit cards before the NYPD finally caught up with him,\u201d Katz said.<\/p>\n

McGriff faces a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted. <\/p>\n

He will return to court on Nov. 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The maniac who allegedly slaughtered and burned an elderly Queens couple inside their home snatched a souvenir New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3094,544,3285,57,9,56,63,65,64,122,2442,797,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-2684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-arson","9":"tag-fires","10":"tag-identity-theft","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-nyc-headlines","16":"tag-nyc-news","17":"tag-queens","18":"tag-stabbings","19":"tag-theft","20":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}