The deranged ex-con who sexually assaulted and murdered the director of a Bronx homeless shelter was found with wrist ties and and a piece of paper with the victim’s license plate written on it, police sources said on Wednesday.
The items were found when police apprehended career criminal West Spruill, 39, and recovered the .40-caliber pistol he used to gun down the innocent woman as she ran naked down the street trying to escape an attempted rape.
Spruill stalked Ana Charle, 36, as she left left her job at the Project Renewal shelter on Bronx Boulevard in Wakefield at about 5:45 p.m. Monday and walked to her Honda parked a block away.
That’s when the maniac pulled a gun on her and ordered her into the back seat and then told her to take off her clothes, police sources said.
The sources said Spruill did not have a chance to restrain the woman’s wrists because she slipped out of the car and ran naked down the street.
But she didn’t make it very far before Spruill caught up with her and gunned her down, firing two .40-caliber slugs into her head and one into her torso.
The woman’s bullet-riddled body was left on a desolate stretch of Bullard Avenue.
“He walks back to the car after he shoots her and gets dressed and starts walking off,” said a police source. “He’s a really, really bad guy.”
Police quickly apprehended Spruill at a nearby carwash and found the gun and other paraphernalia, and took him in on charges of murder and possession of a weapon, the source said.
The wrist ties and piece of paper with the victim’s license plate illustrate the lengths Spruill went to to target his victim, police sources said.
At his arraignment Wednesday, Spruill lashed out at a judge and his own attorney.
The disheveled killer was dressed in a torn white jumpsuit as he was led handcuffed and barefoot in front of Bronx Judge George Grasso, who ordered him held without bail.
“I object I would like to speak to the court, I object.” Spruill said as Bronx Assistant District Attorney Georgia Baker read the gruesome details of how he gunned down a naked Ana Charle on Monday night as she ran for her life following his rape attempt.
“The victim left shelter to go home when witnesses saw victim running naked being pursued by defendant,” Baker said during the arraignment. “Defendant stood over her and shot her repeatedly.
“There is an indication that this was premeditated and this was an intended target,” she said.
When defense attorney Cesar Gonzalez tried to step in and defend his client, Spruill piped up again saying, “I want to represent myself, I don’t want no attorney.
“I don’t want this guy as my attorney and I want to represent myself,” he continued.
Judge Grasso ordered Spruill to keep quiet, telling him, “For the purposes of this arraignment, this is your attorney.”
When Spruill chimed in again, the fed-up judge ordered him remanded and had him escorted out.
Spruill found his way to Project Renewal in June of last year, just months after being set free from a Michigan prison where he served
seven years for assault with a deadly weapon, the source said.
He also served more than a decade in a New York State prison after trying to murder a man back in 1993.
He was also charged with misdemeanor assault in Brooklyn last month when he punched a man in the face during an argument.
He crashed at Charle’s facility until January, when he left to take up residence at another shelter in Manhattan and lived there until April 7, sources said.
“She lived for people, had a great heart,” said . “She lived mainly for her two kids.”