Man Does Time for Gasoline Murder
A Milford man convicted of dousing a co-worker with gasoline and setting him on fire has been sentenced to 25 years in prison. Jon St. Pierre, 41, was sentenced Tuesday. He was charged with beating Thomas Robinson, 28, of Ansonia with a piece of wood before setting him ablaze. Robinson spent five days in a coma and has scars from the burns, which covered more than 20 percent of his body. He has not worked since the December 2006 attack because of his injuries. According to testimony, St. Pierre had believed Robinson was stealing from Top Gun Landscape Pavement, where both men worked. St. Pierre accepted a plea deal three days after his trial began, resulting in convictions for first-degree assault and third-degree arson.
Two dozen kids were arrested, accused of underage drinking at the home of a pageant scholarship winner, Wolcott police said. Police went to the home of Rachael Ramonas, 17, Saturday night after receiving an anonymous call about a party. Ramonas competed in the Miss America Outstanding Teen pageant in August and received a $2,000 scholarship for winning the state title. The names of the 24 arrested have not been released. The head of the Miss Connecticut Scholarship Corp. said the matter is being reviewed.
Body Identified
Local
East Hartford police have identified the person whose body was found in the Connecticut River as Yadira Reid, 15, a missing Hartford teen. Police identified Reid through dental records. The medical examiner has not determined how she died.
Former Alderman Strikes Out
A former Norwich alderman has pleaded no contest to embezzling from the local Little League and a veterans nonprofit organization. John Crooks, 40, faces up to five months in prison. He pleaded no contest to two counts of third-degree larceny Tuesday. Police said Crooks stole $4,650 while serving as treasurer for the Norwich Little League and took more than $10,500 from a veterans organization that was raising funds for a Korean War memorial. Crooks had applied for a probationary program that would have left him with a clean criminal record. The application was denied when the court learned he had used the program for a 1987 arrest when he was in college.
Police Brutality Investigation
The Torrington Police Department is conducting an internal investigation into an incident of alleged police brutality, according to the Register Citizen. A police sergeant told the paper that he has been assigned to investigate a complaint made by Nancy Puzinski and her daughter, Elizabeth, alleging that Elizabeth was harshly treated by Officer John Joseph.
