15-year-old girl arrested in brutal Bronx stabbing

A 15-year-old girl has been arrested in the stabbing of a man whose dismembered body was found stuffed in a garbage bag in the Bronx - and in a second unrelated murder.
Baby-faced Sharell Butler, known by pals as "Lady Red," was charged with murder, manslaughter and assault in the death of John Hopkins Drago, the adopted Russian son of a Bronx family.

Butler, of the Bronx, was also charged with second-degree murder and robbery in a Dec. 19 home invasion that led to the fatal shooting of a Throgs Neck man whom she and another suspect had intended to rob.

The man shot Christopher Umpierrie, 24, in the chest after he and Butler tried to steal marijuana and cash from him at a Dewey Ave. apartment, police sources said.

Butler, who was held Saturday without bail, will be tried as an adult in both crimes, law enforcement sources said.

"She's one piece of a work," said a police source of the teen.

Butler was led into a Bronx courtroom Saturday wearing a bandage on her right hand, an oversized white T-shirt and a blank expression on her face as family members looked on.

Butler, a lanky alleged gang member with unkempt poufy hair, was picked out of a lineup by witnesses in one of the crimes and identified by another witness from a photo array for the other murder, said prosecutor Jaimee Nadell said.

"She's a 15-year-old girl," said Butler's lawyer Xavier Donaldson, who denied allegations that Butler was involved in the Bloods gang. "She's scared. She's just a kid."

A superintendent found Hopkins Drago's mutilated body outside a Barnes Ave. building in Pelham Parkway on Dec. 21.

Hopkins Drago, 22, who had a history of drug arrests, was estranged from his family and had not been reported missing.

Police sources said last week that he had been stabbed at least 40 to 50 times inside a first-floor apartment of a Pelham Parkway building.

James Medina, 23, of the Bronx, was arrested this week for hindering prosecution after a tip to Crime Stoppers, police said.

Robert Pastore, 19, was in custody but has not been charged, police said.

Police believe Pastore and Butler may have killed Hopkins Drago as revenge for talking to police about a robbery Pastore had been arrested for last year, sources said.

"We're going on the theory that he was killed because they thought he was a snitch," said a police source, who said Pastore was being held on a statutory rape charge and remains a person of interest in the Hopkins Drago murder.

Friends said Hopkins Drago had gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd and with drugs. He had been kicked out of a pal's apartment and had no place to stay.

"He didn't deserve what he got," said his adopted mother, Ann Marie Hopkins. "He's just an innocent kid."