CITYWIDE

City’s Heat Wave Death Toll Rises to 27

The death of a 27th New Yorker has been linked to a heat wave that plunged Gotham into sweltering weather that surpassed 100 degrees for three straight days. The 75-year-old woman from Manhattan died of hyperthermia on either Tuesday or Wednesday this week, a spokeswoman for the chief medical examiner’s office, Ellen Borakove, said yesterday.The toll could rise as more autopsies are conducted. An inquiry ordered by Mayor Bloomberg to detect death trends is well under way and will continue as future deaths are linked to the heat wave, Ms. Borakove said. Of the 27 deaths reported, 13 were in Queens, one in the Bronx, five in Manhattan, and eight in Brooklyn.

— Special to the Sun

More Missing Egyptian Students Arrested

Three more Egyptian nationals were apprehended yesterday as part of a national manhunt for 11 students who cleared customs in New York and then went missing last month. Federal authorities arrested El Sayed Ahmed Elsayed Ibrahim, 20, and Alaa Abd El Fattah Ali El Bahnasawi, 20, after locating them at a residence in Dudalk, Md., authorities said. Another individual, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamed Abou El Ela, 22, was arrested in Chicago by local police after he tried to buy a plane ticket to Montana, officials said.The arrests bring the total to six individuals in federal custody after the 11 students disappeared from JFK International Airport on July 29. They were first reported missing August 3 by Montana State University, host of a cultural exchange program where the students were expected. “We haven’t found any indication of terrorist affiliation whatsoever or even criminal affiliation,” a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Dean Boyd, said yesterday.

— Special to the Sun

Fatal Stabbing On Upper West Side

A Queens man was stabbed to death in Manhattan yesterday after a dispute broke out near an Upper West Side housing project, police said. Police identified the victim as William Stroud, 22, of Beach 57th Street in Arverne. The incident occurred, police said, around 12:50 a.m. near the Amsterdam Houses on West 63rd Street, a few blocks away from Lincoln Center. According to police, two groups of men were fighting when Stroud was stabbed twice in the abdomen. He was pronounced dead at St. Luke’s Hospital. As of last night, police had detained two individuals for questioning, but no arrests were made.

— Special to the Sun

Murder-Suicide In Queens

An off-duty corrections officer shot his wife and then himself, while the couple’s two children were in a nearby room, police said. Without providing a motive for the killing, police said Noberto Irizarry, 37, shot his wife, Marilyn Zeh, 32, around 10:50 p.m. Wednesday after an argument inside their Woodside, Queens home. Police said Irizarry then shot himself inside the bathroom, while the couple’s 13-year-old and 5-year-old children were in another room. Irizarry, an officer since October 1997, was assigned to the Transportation Division building, police said. Police said a .9 mm handgun was recovered from the crime scene.

— Special to the Sun

IN THE COURTS

Gotti Prosecutor Has Doubts About Trial

A prosecutor said yesterday he had doubts about the government’s ability to proceed to trial next week against John “Junior” Gotti after a judge tossed out most of the charges the government added to the case three months ago. The unusual admission by Victor Hou, an assistant U.S. attorney, came as he asked U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin to clarify what effect her decision earlier this week to dismiss new racketeering and money laundering charges would have on evidence. The judge said the government could still introduce new evidence it believes might convince a jury that Mr. Gotti continued to benefit from mob activities even after he claimed to have left organized crime. The government struggled to counter a defense argument that Mr. Gotti left the Gambino crime family in the late 1990s and had lived a clean life since then. The judge tossed out most of the charges brought by the government in May, saying they were barred because of the terms of the agreement Mr. Gotti signed when he pleaded guilty to other racketeering charges in 1999.

— Associated Press

STATEWIDE

Alleged Illegal Immigrants Arrested At America’s Fair

HAMBURG — Immigration agents yesterday arrested 41 alleged illegal immigrants who had been hired to clean up at a county fair. The 23 men and 18 women from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, and Honduras were being detained pending appearances in immigration court. A tip led U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to round up the suspects, who were working for a cleaning company that was a subcontractor at America’s Fair in suburban Buffalo, authorities said. No criminal charges were immediately filed against the cleaning company, which was not identified. Agents were investigating how the workers got into the country, where they obtained fraudulent documents and whether their employer knew that they were not authorized to work in America. “One of the cornerstones of Homeland Security’s interior enforcement strategy is to aggressively deter illegal employment in this country,” Thomas DiSimone, acting special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Buffalo, said. “ICE does that by arresting illegal workers and by pursuing criminal charges against those who knowingly hire unauthorized workers.”

— Associated Press

TRISTATE

Man Charged With Molesting Girls for Years

MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. — A man repeatedly sexually assaulted five young girls whose families he had befriended, authorities said yesterday. Richard A. Dillard, 39, of Mount Holly, was charged Wednesday with aggravated sexual assault. He was being held on $350,000 bail. Authorities said that in 1996 Dillard became friendly with two families who shared a Mount Holly home and then began molesting their young daughters. Two years later, Dillard moved in with the families and stayed until 2000. While he lived with them, he continued sexually assaulting the girls, authorities said, always in their home. At the time of the alleged assaults, the five girls ranged in age from 3 to 9. Now, they are between 12 and 14. The mothers of the girls reported the alleged assaults to police last month. If Dillard is convicted on all eight counts he faces, he could face up to 140 years in state prison. By yesterday afternoon, no one had come forward as his lawyer.

— Associated Press

Two Boys Admit Roles In Plot To Open Fire At School

CAMDEN, N.J. — Two teens admitted yesterday their roles in planning a shooting rampage that was to begin at their Camden County high school and then spill into their community, and one of their lawyers said the plot moved from “a sick fantasy” to reality before the youths were caught in April. Both Edwin DeLeon, 15, and a 15-year-old whose names authorities did not release, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess a firearm for an unlawful purpose. The boys did not have a weapon and there was no violence in the case. The boys admitted they were planning to shoot people at Winslow Township High School but they were unable to get a gun. Authorities said DeLeon was the leader of the plot. He agreed to a plea deal with authorities in which he could serve up to six years in a state prison. He is to be sentenced October. 6. The other teen, also a 15-year-old from Winslow, pleaded guilty Thursday in family court. He agreed to serve up to three years in a juvenile detention facility. His sentencing is scheduled for September 28. The boys were arrested after the principal at their school heard about the plot and called police. DeLeon’s lawyer, David S. Bahuriak, said the youth tried to buy a handgun from a local dealer.

— Associated Press