A jury has sentenced a former Trumbull man to death for killing two adults and a 9-year-old in Bridgeport in 2006.
It was the second time a jury recommended execution for Richard Roszkowski, who also was condemned to die in 2009 before a judge overturned the sentence because of an error made during jury instructions and ordered a new penalty phase.
The new verdict was announced Monday in Bridgeport Superior Court, according to a report in The Connecticut Post. The jury had only two choices: lethal injection or life in prison.
Roszkowski was convicted in 2009 of capital felony and murder for fatally shooting his 39-year-old ex-girlfriend, Holly Flannery, her 9-year-old daughter, Kylie, and 38-year-old Thomas Gaudet in 2006. Police said Roszkowski stalked Flannery after she broke up with him and falsely believed she and Gaudet were romantically involved.
In January, the Polish government unsuccessfully sought to block the penalty phase and urged a judge to impose a life prison sentence, because it considers Roszkowski a dual citizen and there is no death penalty in Poland. Roszkowski's parents were Polish.
Connecticut abolished the death penalty for murders committed after April 24, 2012, but it still applies to 10 men on death row, and prosecutors sought it for Roszkowski.
Roszkowski's public defenders also objected to a new penalty phase, noting the state Supreme Court is still deciding whether the state's repeal of the death penalty in 2012 violates the constitutional rights of death row inmates.
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He's the 12th Connecticut resident to receive the death sentence, according to the Stamford Advocate.
