A Middletown man will spend as many as 30 years in a psychiatric treatment facility for a May 2021 murder after being found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.
A three-judge panel on Tuesday sentenced Eugenio Vela III, 21, in connection with the deadly stabbing of a woman in Middletown three years ago.
Police said Vela and the victim, who had two orders of protection between them, were both in a car on Ridgewood Road when he stabbed her more than 20 times. The victim drove herself to the fire department after Vela fled on foot but later died at the hospital.
The panel concluded that the state proved “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Vela intentionally committed the murder.
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But according to the Office of the State’s Attorney, the panel also found that Vela, who was 18 at the time of the stabbing, was unable to “appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or control his behavior.”
Vela will spend up to three decades in the jurisdiction of the Psychiatric Security Review Board, the body responsible for the confinement and treatment of individuals acquitted by reason of mental disease or defect.
Vela will be confined in the maximum security section of Whiting Forensic Hospital in Middletown.
