Infamous kiddie sex-fiend Andre Rand finally on trial in the 1981 disappearance of a 7-year-old Staten Island girl fashioned a child's body out of prison bedding and then masturbated on it, prosecutors alleged yesterday. Rand dubbed the "Hannibal Lecter of Staten Island" is already serving 25 years to life for the kidnapping of another 12-year-old borough girl in 1988. He was spotted by other inmates using the bedding for sicko sex, lead prosecutor Mario Mattei said in Staten Island Supreme Court.
Rand's homemade "doll" consisted of a rectangular piece of green eggshell foam that had part of its top tied off with a piece of string to form what prosecutors claimed was a small head.
It was seized from the 60-year-old convict's cell at Auburn Correctional Facility in 2001 after "he was observed sleeping with it and cuddling with it," Mattei said.
DNA tests later showed it had Rand's semen on it, prosecutors said.
But prosecutors were unsuccessful yesterday in their bid to get the bedding admitted as evidence in the sensational case, which riveted the city more than 20 years ago when little Holly Ann Hughes vanished.
After the jury was sent home halfway through the day, Judge Stephen Rooney ruled during a hearing that the bedding's shape "is amorphous.
"You could look at this and call it almost anything you want," he said.
Rand is accused of abducting Holly Ann on July 15, 1981, after she walked to the corner deli to buy a bar of Ivory soap.
Her body was never found, but witnesses will reportedly testify that she got into the drifter's green Volkswagen that day. The suspect has already admitted talking to her after watching her walking to the store.
Rand's ex-girlfriend, Eileen Nix, is set to take the stand today to testify that her former beau used to beg her to wear pigtails.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/29387.htm
Rand's homemade "doll" consisted of a rectangular piece of green eggshell foam that had part of its top tied off with a piece of string to form what prosecutors claimed was a small head.
It was seized from the 60-year-old convict's cell at Auburn Correctional Facility in 2001 after "he was observed sleeping with it and cuddling with it," Mattei said.
DNA tests later showed it had Rand's semen on it, prosecutors said.
But prosecutors were unsuccessful yesterday in their bid to get the bedding admitted as evidence in the sensational case, which riveted the city more than 20 years ago when little Holly Ann Hughes vanished.
After the jury was sent home halfway through the day, Judge Stephen Rooney ruled during a hearing that the bedding's shape "is amorphous.
"You could look at this and call it almost anything you want," he said.
Rand is accused of abducting Holly Ann on July 15, 1981, after she walked to the corner deli to buy a bar of Ivory soap.
Her body was never found, but witnesses will reportedly testify that she got into the drifter's green Volkswagen that day. The suspect has already admitted talking to her after watching her walking to the store.
Rand's ex-girlfriend, Eileen Nix, is set to take the stand today to testify that her former beau used to beg her to wear pigtails.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/29387.htm