The Journal News from White Plains, New York • Page 14

28 Friday, March 9, 2007 The Journal News From Page One LoHud.com Tattooed body not Orange County woman Reports of ID wrong; art covered earlier design, police say Jorge Fitz-Gibbon The Journal News MAMARONECK It looked at one point like village police had finally found the identity of the woman whose torso washed up on a village beach over the weekend. It turned out to be a false alarm. The woman's tattooed remains are still a mystery after Mamaro-neck police determined it was not a 30-year-old woman missing from Highland Falls in Orange County since early last year. Mamaroneck police Lt. James Gaffney said the missing Orange County woman, Petra Muham mad, a mother of two who disappeared in February 2006, is taller, younger and of a darker complexion than the remains found at Harbor Island Park on Saturday.

Most importantly, Muhammad did not have the small tattoo above the right breast that has become the most important clue in identifying the dismembered remains. So, although Mamaroneck and Highland Falls police discussed the possibility, Gaffney said television reports of a link in the two cases were hasty and inaccurate. "It was simply two agencies working together to see what they had, and there was nothing there," Gaffney said yesterday. Police are distributing fliers at tattoo parlors in the New York metropolitan area in the hope someone can identify the tattoo two cherries with leaves and a long stem on the torso. Tattoo artists told detectives that the body art is likely a "cover-up," which means it was inked to cover up an earlier tattoo.

"We're doing different things," Gaffney said. "We're communicating with other agencies, we're following things, we're seeing if things match. We're looking to see where we can go next." Police believe the woman was Hispanic, 5-foot-4 to 5-foot-6 in height, weighing 180 to 200 pounds and from 35 to 50 years old. Anyone with information on the case should call Mamaroneck village police at 914-777-7780. Staff writer Leslie Korngold contributed to this report.

Reach Jorge Fitz-Gibbon atjfitzgiblohud.com or 914-694-5016. 9 die in fire 1 "ft 1 'n'satei Cooke guilty on 11 counts BONISTALL, from IB to have to suffer or go through this pain," she said, fighting back more tears as she left the New Castle County Courthouse in Wilmington, Del. Bonistall, a 20-year-old University of Delaware sophomore, was bound and gagged, raped and strangled with one of her T-shirts early on May 1, 2005, after Cooke broke into her off-campus apartment in Newark, Del. He wrote "KKK," "White power" and phrases about drug money on the walls to confuse pojice into thinking a white supremacist drug gang was responsible. Bonistall was already i Ron SolimanThe News Journal (Del.) Newark, Detective Andrew Rubin listens to Prosecutor Steven P.

Wood, foreground, as Wood talks about Cooke's murder conviction. hJ Jj "VH fit 7 i I Jr.i.': 4 -ft i 1 I FIRE, from IB er neighbor, David Todd. The baby wasn't breathing, but it barely registered. Moments later, Soto caught a second child hurled through a shattered window by a woman trapped inside the three-story inferno. Both of the children survived.

The fire, which raged for two hours, was sparked by an overheated space heater near a mattress in the basement, officials said. Police said there was no evidence of a crime. The deadly blaze was the city's worst since the 1990 Happy Land social club fire that killed 87 people. The dead were found throughout the building, mostly on the upper floors, with the babies still in their cribs, one fire official said. Magassa, an official of the New York chapter of the High Council for Malians Living Abroad, was headed back from a business trip to Mali after receiving the grim news, council representative Bourema Niambele said.

Magassa arrived in New York about 15 years ago, friends said. One neighbor said Magassa and Mamadou Soumare were brothers. Fatoumata Soumare came from the village of Tasauirga and left for the Bronx about six years ago, friends said. Neighbors described a close-knit family, with the children often seen playing in the yard or in the street with water guns and scooters. Authorities said 22 people, including 17 children, lived inside the house, which had been converted into two apartments.

Many were stranded on the upper floors after the basement fire raced up the stairs shortly after it began around 11 p.m. Wednesday. Todd, 40, who lives in an adjoining apartment building, said one child was already on the ground in the yard when he arrived with Soto outside the burning home. "Please, God, help my children!" the woman inside screamed while tossing kids through the broken glass of an upstairs window and then plunging herself from the window. Another neighbor, Elaine Martin, was moving her car when she heard the shouts from inside the home.

The flames were shooting from the building when she arrived, and a woman in a nightgown stood crying in the street. "My kids is in there, my kids is in there," the woman wailed to Martin. Among the dead, family members said, were Fatoumata Soumare, 42, and her three children: a son, Dgibril, and 7-month-old twins, Sisi and Harouma. A fourth child, 7-year-old Hasimy, dead when he put her body in the bathtub, covered it with her guitar, a wicker basket, a feather pillow and clothing, and set the items on fire. The fire was extinguished after neighbors called Lindsey Bonistall 911, but the victim was so covered by charred debris that officials did not see her until they returned later in the day to investigate the blaze.

Cooke had poured bleach on Bonistall's clothing and bed in an attempt to destroy evidence. But semen was recovered from the body, and DNA testing revealed odds of one in 676 quinullion that someone other than Cooke had sex with her. Defense lawyers Brendan O'Neill and Kevin O'Connell did not challenge the prosecution's evidence linking the defendant to the grisly slaying and two home invasion robberies nearby that same week. In closing arguments on Monday, they conceded he was responsible for the crimes. But they asked jurors to find Cooke guilty but mentally ill by accepting testimony of defense experts that years of neglect and abuse as a child left him with personality disorders that qualified as mental illnesses under Delaware law.

Cooke was malnourished as a child, beaten by his mother and once had his feet scalded by her boyfriend, leaving him disfigured. His family moved a dozen times before he was a teen, and he was once sexually abused by residents at a home for troubled children. But while acknowledging that Cooke's upbringing was horrible, prosecutors said it was no excuse for the life of crime he led as an frill iiiinrnr- Louis LanzanoThe Associated Press New York City Fire Department personnel view the burned-out shell of a building in the Bronx. Nine people died and the brick building's interior was destroyed in a fire early yesterday morning. i and Mental Health Center.

Three girls were comatose when pulled from the fire and were treated for smoke inhalation. The home did not have a fire escape and was not required to under city building codes, the Building Department said. There were no complaints or violations on record against the building, constructed in 1901, said department spokesman Kate Lindquist. A Muslim cleric who knew the Magassa family said its patriarch was a well-known figure in the community. "He's the best in our community," Imam Mahamadou Soukouna said.

"It's very, very, very sad what has happened to us today." Throughout 2007, the county will continue to work to reduce the emissions from its dump trucks, snowplows and other diesel-powered vehicles, Vanderhoef said. The county has already put its nearly 200 vehicles on an ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel diet. That helps reduce fine particulate emissions by 5 to 10 percent, Susan Meyer, the county Transportation Department's spokeswoman, said yesterday. Once the county outfits the vehicles with exhaust after-treatments, those emissions are expected to drop by about 90 percent, she said. Just as important, she noted, the effort to reduce one of the worst kinds of pollution was something surrounding counties and New York City also were pursuing.

Particulate matter is so small, it can make its way deep into the lungs and harm human health, experts have said. By being part of a larger effort, Rockland will help clean not only its own air, but that of the region's, Vanderhoef said. He said private companies and citizens needed to follow the example. Reach Laura Incalcaterra at lincalcalohud.com or 845-578-2486. present for the verdict.

Herlihy warned him against any further outbursts, and Cooke behaved himself as the verdict was announced. Afterward, O'Neill said the verdict was disappointing but not surprising. He said he and O'Connell were still confident that they had a strong mitigation case to spare Cooke the death penalty. Asked if he thought Cooke's courtroom antics played a role in the verdict, he said he was not sure. "It's hard to say.

Obviously it didn't affect them to the point where they thought he was mentally ill," he said. Cooke is an ex-convict who was from a New Jersey prison in 2002. He lived on Dncoln Drive in Newark, with his girlfriend and their four children, around the corner from the Towne Court apartments where Bonistall lived. He was convicted of first-degree murder, rape, burglary, arson and reckless endangerment in the Bonistall case and burglary and theft charges related to the other home invasions. The jurors were dismissed until Monday.

But one, No. 9, a Newark resident, will return this morning at the request of the judge because he contacted Newark police yesterday about an undisclosed problem. During the trial, Cooke had complained about the man being selected as a juror. He suggested that he would convict him to win leniency for his son, who had run-ins with Newark police. The juror assured the judge that he would be fair and that his son's problems were in the past Reach Jonathan Bandler atjbandlerlohud.com or 914-694-3520.

has prevailed' al was about Cooke, but now they wanted to focus on lindsey. "Throughout this entire process, the Bonistall family has shown a tremendous amount of dignity. They are a special family," Wood said. "And all of us hope that this verdict can be an important part in the healing process for the Bonistall family and Lindsey Bonistall's friends as well." The family and prosecutors would not address the next stage of the trial, when jurors will hear evidence about Cooke's past and the victim's life before deciding whether to recommend the death penalty or life in prison without parole. That stage will begin Monday morning and is expected to last about a week.

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The trial was marked by Cooke's frequent outbursts as he complained about his lawyers "railroading" him and the judge making unfair rulings, sometimes in front of the jury. He was removed from the court several times and barred for the last two weeks of the trial after one outburst led to a scuffle in which three court officers wrestled him to the floor. Cooke watched the proceedings on closed-circuit television in a holding cell. But he returned to court to testify, against his lawyer's advice, and claimed he had consensual sex with Bonistall but did not kill her and insisted he was not mentally ill. His lawyers urged jurors to recognize that his performance was proof of mental illness.

But prosecutors countered that it showed Cooke was simply an angry, remorseless criminal, particularly when he made disparaging remarks about the victim. The jury of eight men and four women reached its verdict about 10 a.m. yesterday after just over two days of deliberations. Cooke was brought into the courtroom and told Herlihy he wanted to be erations and was delivered more than hour later in a packed courtroom just before 11:30 a.m. As they were waiting, Kathleen Bonistall and one of Lindsey's cousins held pictures of the victim when she was a young girl.

When the jury forewoman answered "guilty" to the the first of 11 charges rejecting the guilty but mentally-ill verdict sought by the defense Lindsey's relatives began crying with relief. Bonistall also praised the Newark police investigators, particularly Scarsdale native Andrew Rubin, as well as former Police Chief William Nefosky, who died just before the trial began. "We know he's with us here today, as is Lindsey," she said. Moments earlier, prosecutors left the courthouse expressing satisfaction with the verdict and the jury's hard work. They said the tri Connecticut Mid-Day 3: 4 5 8 Mid-Day 4: 6 6 5 0 Play 3: 9 7 7 Play 4: 2 4 7 2 Cash 5: 2 15 25 27 32 WEDNESDAY RESULTS New York Midday Daily: 6 91 Lucky Sum: 16 Midday WinFour: 0 0 61 Lucky Sum: 7 Daily: 0 21 Lucky Sum: 3 WinFour: 3 8 7 0 Lucky Sum: 18 Pick-10: 1 7 14 15 22 25 28 29 34 39 41 45 47 48 59 66 70 73 78 79 Lotto: 1 16 26 28 36 40 Bonus number: 30 Mom 'thankful that justice Vanderhoef pushes land-use plan escaped, her father said.

The family members provided different name spellings than the authorities did. Authorities identified the members of the Magassa family as four brothers Bandiougou, 11, Ma-hamadou, 8, Abudubucary, 5, and Bilaly, 1 and their sister, 3-year-old Diaba. Multiple spellings of the family's surname were provided after the fire, but property records and phone listings have it as Magassa. There were reports of 19 injuries, including four firefighters and an emergency medical worker. A 7-year-old girl remained in critical condition, a hospital spokesman said, while a pair of 6-year-olds were upgraded from critical to good condition and transferred to Lincoln Hospital can help when it comes to addressing current flooding and avoiding new problems from future development, he said.

The drainage agency also will work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state Department of Environmental Conservation to map some 450 miles of creeks, streams and rivers in Rockland, Devine said. The total includes the 80 miles that are regulated and maintained by the county, he said. The updating will be done as part of FEMA's Flood Insurance Rate Maps project. When it's complete, the location of every home and business in every flood plain in the county will be known. One possible implication is that homeowners in "shorter" plains those where flooding is expected every five, 10 or 25 years, could face higher insurance premiums, experts said.

The county also will work to create a model Stormwater Management Control Ordinance to address water quality, Devine said. New federal rules require stormwater to be held on-site to help reduce flooding, and to help reduce runoff from carrying pollution into waterways. Devine said the county's ordinance would target water quality and serve as a guide to towns and villages, which could opt to pass' their own version of the Jonathan Bandler The Journal News Kathleen Bonistall thanked the Delaware prosecutors who won yesterday's conviction against her daughter's killer. "We love 'em. We call them our family now," the White Plains resident said of Steven Wood, Diane Walsh and Danielle Brennan as she and other relatives left the New Castle County Courthouse in Wilmington, yesterday afternoon.

"We're just thankful that justice has prevailed." The jury found James Cooke Jr. guilty of first-degree murder and 10 other charges in three home invasions in Newark, that culminated in the May 1, 2005, slaying of Lindsey Bonistall, a 20-year-old University of Delaware sophomore. The verdict was reached at the start of the third day of delib LOTTERIES New York Midday Daily: 9 8 4 Lucky Sum: 21 Midday WinFour: 6 5 31 Lucky Sum: 15 Daily: 5 51 Lucky Sum: 11 WinFour: 3 7 2 8 Lucky Sum: 20 Pick-10: 8 15 18 23 26 30 32 33 35 40 43 50 54 55 60 65 70 73 79 Take Five: 7 12 24 28 37 New Jersey Midday Pick 3: 0 0 5 Midday Pick 4: 6 4 7 3 Pick 3: 8 8 4 Pick 4: 5 3 2 9 Cash 5: 1 13 30 36 38 Pick 6: 1 3 5 6 28 29 SURROUNDINGS, from IB county Planning Department in the effort. Cornell said the Legislature could have the department undertake the task. "We have to work together on this," Cornell said of the county's two branches of A collaborative outreach also must be made to the towns and villages, she said.

Vanderhoef said the plan would have to take into account recent census numbers, water needs, drainage concerns and the potential impact from a new Tappan Zee Bridge and Interstate 287 corridor expansion. "This would allow us to take a look at the issues surrounding the different alternatives and the consequences on land use," Vanderhoef said yesterday. Also this year, the county expects to enter the next phase of a drainage study to pinpoint problem areas and come up with coun-tywide solutions. There will be plenty of work because flooding is a major complaint and concern of many Rockland residents. The county Drainage Agency will create a GIS-based watershed and subwatershed map of Rockland, said Ed Devine, who heads the agency.

That's because neither watersheds nor their problems stop at town borders, he said. Understanding watersheds.