Rensselaer County prosecutors will not be able to use Google technology to try to prove Johnny Oquendo strangled 21-year-old Noel Alkaramla and dumped her body in a suitcase in the Hudson River. In a strongly worded three-page ruling issued Thursday, state Supreme Court Justice Andrew Ceresia determined prosecutors for District Attorney Joel Abelove “failed to meet their burden of demonstrating that the science underlying Google location services has gained general acceptance in the in the relevant scientific community.”
Jury selection begins Monday in the trial of Oquendo, 40, who is charged with second-degree murder, concealment of a human body and criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation, a misdemeanor. He faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.
Alkaramla, whose mother had been married to Oquendo, disappeared after a co-worker at Verdile’s restaurant in Troy dropped her off on Third Street, the street where the defendant lived, around 9 a.m. on Nov. 22, 2015.
Prosecutors say Oquendo, who is a registered sex offender, choked Alkaramla to death on the third floor of his apartment at 170 Third St. They allege he stuffed the 5-foot-1-inch, 135-pound woman into a suitcase and dumped her in the river. She was found Dec. 30, 2015 near the USS Slater, the World War II Navy destroyer escort docked along the Hudson in Albany.
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