Arrest of Newark Airport security supervisor renews interest in 1992 slaying (update)
Arrest of Newark Airport security supervisor renews interest in 1992 slaying
Quote:
Investigators were still trying to find out Tuesday how Oyewole obtained what appeared to be Thomas’ birth certificate and Social Security card, documents he used to get his job, a state driver’s license and high school equivalency degree.
By Shawn Boburg / The Record (Hackensack N.J.)
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
HACKENSACK, N.J. — The arrest of an illegal immigrant — who authorities say worked as a Newark Airport security supervisor under a false identity for 20 years — has renewed police interest in the 1992 unsolved slaying of the man whose identity he assumed.
New York City cold case investigators spent more than two hours questioning Bimbo Olumuyiwa Oyewole about the slaying, following his arrest on Monday for identity theft, authorities said. And they were planning to compare the fingerprints of the Nigerian national and Elizabeth, N.J., resident with unmatched prints found at the scene of the fatal shooting in a YMCA in Queens, a Port Authority official said.
Oyewole pleaded not guilty to the identity theft charge in Superior Court in Essex County on Tuesday.
But the timing of the identity theft, which appears to have preceded the slaying, has investigators probing whether the two are connected, a high ranking Port Authority investigator said Tuesday.
A resume on file with the Port Authority indicates Oyewole was hired at Newark in March 1992 under the name Jerry Thomas. The real Jerry Thomas was shot to death about four months later, in July 1992, authorities said. Thomas was found by a janitor in Room 928 of a YMCA in the Jamaica section of Queens on the morning of July 20, an NYPD spokesman said. He had been shot four times: in the face, leg and twice in the chest.
Investigators were still trying to find out Tuesday how Oyewole obtained what appeared to be Thomas’ birth certificate and Social Security card, documents he used to get his job, a state driver’s license and high school equivalency degree.
Oyewole’s attorney, Regina Lynch, could not be reached for comment.
Authorities on Tuesday also provided new details that shed light on how Oyewole’s true identity went undetected for so long, despite background checks that included fingerprint comparisons with state and federal databases. Investigators found out about Oyewole through an anonymous tip.
Although they say there is no indication Oyewole assumed a false identity for any other reason than to remain in the country, the arrest has cast a spotlight on the limitations of the screening process undertaken by New Jersey State Police, the federal government and his private employer, FJC Security Services.
One element that has piqued police interest in the slaying is that the Social Security Administration was never told of Thomas’ death. A family member or a funeral director normally alerts the agency, said Port Authority Deputy Inspector General Michael Nestor. But the fact that no one informed the agency allowed Oyewole to maintain Thomas’ identity and avoid detection, Nestor said.
"That’s one of the things we’re looking at," Nestor said. "How would (Oyewole) know to use that Social Security number, and that it hadn’t been reported?"
If it had been reported, federal officials and state officials who conduct screening required of airport security personnel would have seen that the Social Security number matched a dead person, Nestor said.
Oyewole got a security guard license from the New Jersey State Police by using Thomas’ name and documents. And he was given clearances that also included fingerprint checks by the Customs and Border Patrol and the Transportation Security Administration. The Port Authority, which operates the airport, said it relies on the private security companies it hires to vet its own employees and provide proof of the required background checks.
A spokesman for the Custom and Border Patrol said Monday that fingerprint checks did not turn up any concerns because neither Thomas’ nor Oyewole’s prints were found in criminal databases when background checks were conducted. But an NYPD spokesman on Tuesday said Thomas, who was 41 when he was killed, had a criminal history that included drug possession, burglary, robbery and resisting arrest and that his fingerprints had been taken.
Nestor said when Oyewole’s fingerprints were entered into the system during background checks, no flags were raised because those prints did not match any other identity. It was unclear whether the background checks searched for criminal histories only through fingerprint matches or if they also included a criminal history based on Social Security numbers.
"When they ran (Oyewole’s) fingerprints, they came back clean," Nestor said.
"The system can be beat, and someone’s got to find a way of tightening the loopholes," said Nestor, who spent 25 years as a U.S. Customs special agent before going to the Port Authority.
Oyewole does not appear to have any family members in the United States, Nestor said. And NYPD detectives are also unaware of any surviving relatives of Thomas.
Officials and a spokesman for the company Oyewole worked for, FJC Security Services, have said he had an unblemished employee record. He had worked for three other security companies that had Port Authority contracts at the airport before working for FJC.
"We got the sense he was just using the identity because he was in the country illegally and able to assume somewhat of a normal life," Nestor said.
When confronted at his Elizabeth home by investigators on Monday, Oyewole originally denied that he had a false identity, Nestor said.
"We explained to him that he’d had a good 20-year run, but that the gig was up," Nestor said. "He thought about it and said, ’You’re right.’ "
In his first court appearance, through a video conference fed to a Newark courtroom Tuesday, however, Oyewole pleaded not guilty. The only time he spoke was to say "yes" when the judge asked him if he lived in Elizabeth. He was being held in Essex County Jail on $250,000 bail.
Immigration officials were also involved in the investigation and put a 48-hour hold on Oyewole, Nestor said, meaning he cannot be released during that period regardless of the court proceeding on the identity theft charge. Federal officials could be reviewing whether Oyewole made false statements to federal agencies on applications, which would possibly lead to federal charges, a law enforcement source said.
Although rare, undocumented immigrants have been charged federally for using false documents on applications to get private airport security jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General.
In 2002, five undocumented foreign nationals — one of them a security screener — were arrested at an airport in Atlanta for lying on job applications by using false immigration documents and Social Security numbers. The same year, an illegal foreign national from Colombia was sentenced to three years probation — and the possibility of deportation — for making false statements and using a false Social Security number to get a job with a company that provided services inside a secure area of Boston’s Logan International Airport.
New Jersey Deputy Attorney General Vincent Militello is prosecuting Oyewole on the identity theft charges. Prosecutors said Tuesday that he may have four or five other aliases. Peter Aseltine, a spokesman for the New Jersey attorney general, said "the next step would be to present it to a grand jury for potential indictment."
Arrest of Newark Airport security supervisor renews interest in 1992 slaying - BostonHerald.com
Newark airport supervisor sentenced; used deceased ID
NEWARK — An illegal immigrant from Nigeria who worked as a security supervisor at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport for 20 years has been sentenced after admitting he used a murdered man’s identity.
Bimbo Oyewole was sentenced today to a year’s probation.
The 54-year-old Elizabeth resident pleaded guilty in September to providing false identification when he applied for the job.
Oyewole admitted that he’s in the country illegally. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed a detainer on him, which means he could be deported.
Authorities say Oyewole used the identity of Jerry Thomas. Thomas was shot outside a Queens, N.Y., YMCA in 1992.
Police in New York say Thomas sold his documents to a Nigerian cab driver, who then sold them to Oyewole.
Newark airport supervisor sentenced; used deceased ID | The Asbury Park Press NJ | app.com
