The Queens artist charged with butchering his female roommate told cops he “smoked weed” and “drank a lot of beer” before plunging a kitchen knife into her neck, back and arm as she chatted on the phone, prosecutors said Friday.
Assistant District Attorney Crystal Igneri described how Render Stetson-Shanahan, 26, confessed to the murder just moments after being taken into custody, telling officers “I stabbed myself and I stabbed my roommate” while standing outside in nothing but his boxer briefs.
“I was upset,” the illustrator said, according to Igneri at the suspect’s arraignment. “I drank a lot of beer, smoked weed at my brother’s house … She was on the phone and I said, ‘Guess what?’ then I stabbed her.”
Cops found Stetson-Shanahan’s roommate, Carolyn Bush, 26, sprawled out on a floor Wednesday night in a bedroom with multiple stab wounds. They later discovered the Rhineback native soaked in blood and standing outside, posted up on a street corner down the block.
Stetson-Shanahan’s lawyer for the arraignment, Philip Middler, told The Post that while his client was in fact found in his underwear, he was wearing a white shirt and grey sweatpants during the slaying — clothes he still had on in court Friday.
“Yes, that is allegedly what he was wearing that night,” Middler said of the outfit, which still had blood on it. “It is very unusual that they didn’t take it for evidence.”
Stetson-Shanahan was remanded by the judge and is expected to be back in court Oct. 17.
His lawyer asked and that a psych evaluation be done on him, citing a request from his family.
“There is a psychological difficulty he is currently going through,” Medler told the judge, who granted his request.
Prosecutors said Stetson-Shanahan’s family plans to retain a lawyer before his next court appearance.