A convicted sex offender who parole officials declined to return to custody after a 2024 sex-offender registry infraction was arrested Wednesday on charges including murder, arson and kidnapping after the bodies of an elderly Queens couple were found bound, stabbed and their home torched, authorities said.
The accused, identified by police as 42-year-old Jamel McGriff, was taken into custody in Manhattan two days after the slayings in Bellerose. McGriff faces a slate of state charges, including two counts of murder, robbery, burglary, kidnapping, arson and identity theft, the New York Police Department said Thursday. He also remains the subject of a Bronx District Attorney’s Office felony case tied to an alleged failure to register as a sex offender in 2024.
Police said the victims were Frank and Maureen Olton of Bellerose. Authorities described the couple’s deaths as the culmination of several hours of terror. Investigators said surveillance footage and witness accounts show McGriff asking neighbors on Monday to allow him inside their homes to charge his phone, then gaining access to the Oltons’ property through a backyard and entering the house through the back door.
Firefighters responding to a blaze at the residence later that day discovered Frank Olton, 77, in the basement tied to a pole and covered in stab wounds, and Maureen Olton dead on the first floor, officials said. Investigators said McGriff allegedly set the fire and used the couple’s credit cards in Manhattan in the days after the killings to buy movie tickets and make other purchases before his arrest.
The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) confirmed that the NYPD alerted the agency in November 2024 to an arrest stemming from an alleged failure to register as a sex offender in July 2024. That violation, agency officials said, could have prompted a return to custody. Instead, DOCCS said parole staff determined McGriff was complying with other terms of his supervision.
"At the time the parole staff was advised of the arrest, [McGriff] was compliant with his supervision, reported as directed and was engaged in employment and treatment," DOCCS said in a statement. "He also had never changed his address without the parole office’s knowledge and was in fact transferred from a Manhattan bureau to a Bronx bureau once his new address was approved." McGriff pleaded not guilty to the felony registry charge and remained released pending trial because the count is not bail eligible under recent state criminal justice reforms, according to law enforcement sources.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a Thursday news conference that McGriff should have been held on a parole violation after the registry infraction. "We have to take all of these violations seriously," she said, arguing that the parole system missed an opportunity to remove an allegedly dangerous man from the street. DOCCS responded that, based on information then available, staff concluded McGriff had not violated parole in a way that warranted return to prison.
DOCCS also said the agency had only this week issued a parole violation in connection with another matter — an alleged attempted robbery at a Verizon store in August — after collecting additional evidence provided by the NYPD. The agency noted that a parole officer played a role in identifying McGriff as the prime suspect in the double homicide, a fact the NYPD’s chief of detectives, Joseph Kenny, has publicly acknowledged.
McGriff served about 16 years in prison on a prior conviction that included robbery and a sex act, officials said. He was released from state custody more than a year ago and had been under parole supervision. Authorities said McGriff had also been a suspect in two other incidents over the summer; DOCCS officials said they pursued a parole violation this week in one of those cases after receiving additional information from police.
Prosecutors in Bronx criminal court have continued to pursue the outstanding felony charge tied to the registration allegation, but a source in law enforcement said the count was not bail eligible under the state’s criminal justice reforms and McGriff was released pending that case.
Authorities said they uncovered a sequence of events that led to McGriff’s arrest: after the killings, surveillance footage showed him leaving the area and subsequently using the victims’ credit cards. He was detained Wednesday afternoon in Manhattan, and law enforcement officials said he was arraigned on the homicide and related charges.
Investigators continue to process the scene and review video evidence and witness statements. The NYPD and DOCCS said they were coordinating on the criminal cases and parole matters as prosecutors prepare the murder indictment and related charges. The deaths have prompted renewed scrutiny of parole supervision and the handling of sex-offender registry violations amid debates over public safety and criminal justice policy in New York.