Bed-Stuy Homicide Suspect Extradited From Ohio to NYC

The Sumpter Street apartment building where Maurice Jones was murdered last month. Image via Google Maps

By CHRISTOPHER NEELY

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — Following a six­-week investigation that spanned hundreds of miles, NYPD detectives claim they’ve arrested the man responsible for the January murder of 45-year-old Bed-Stuy resident Maurice Jones.

The suspect, 48-year-old Harry Steadman, was extradited to New York City last Friday and charged with second-­degree murder in connection with Jones’s death, an NYPD spokesman told Patch.

On the afternoon of Jan. 11, police said they found Jones inside his apartment at 114 Sumpter St. with three gunshot wounds to his neck, back and shoulder. Jones was rushed to Kings County Hospital in Prospect Lefferts-Gardens, police said, where he was later pronounced dead.

Two days after the murder, on Jan. 13, the U.S. Marshal’s Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team arrested Steadman in Dayton, Ohio — over 600 miles away from the scene of the crime.

According to the U.S. Marshal’s Service:

Through the investigation, information was developed from members of the U.S. Marshals New York/New Jersey Regional Task Force that Steadman was on a Greyhound Bus stopping in Dayton. Investigators believed Steadman fled the state to avoid law enforcement and was attempting to make his way to California. The Dayton U.S. Marshals Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team (SOFAST) reacted quickly to the request for assistance and was able to locate and arrest Steadman at a Greyhound bus stop off of Shiloh Springs Road in Trotwood, OH. Steadman was transported to the Montgomery County Jail where he will remain until extradited back to New York.

The NYPD’s press office could not provide an address for Steadman, who police believe may be homeless.

If he’s found guilty of murdering Jones, Steadman could serve 15­ years­ to ­life in prison.

“Ironically enough,” the U.S. Marshal’s Service said in a news release, “Steadman was just recently released from prison where he served 25 years as a result of a previous homicide conviction.”