A convicted sex offender accused of fatally stabbing an insurance company executive while she was running on a trail in Simsbury pleaded not guilty on Wednesday.
William Leverett faces a murder charge in the November 2014 death of 54-year-old Melissa Millan, a senior vice president at Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.
Leverett Was arrested on Sept. 23, four days after he walked into the Simsbury Police Department and confessed to the crime, according to the arrest warrant application.
Millan was found dead along Iron Horse Boulevard on Nov. 20, 2014. She had gone out for a run the night before.
According to the arrest warrant application, Leverett told police that on the night of Millan's death, he returned home from a sex offenders therapy group and felt lonely. He went to walk along the path near Iron Horse Boulevard in hopes of finding someone to talk with. Leverett saw Millan on the running path and said he was immediately attracted to her physical features.
Leverett told police he did not know Millan and had never seen her prior to the moment she jogged by him.
He told investigators he went into a frenzy after seeing Millan and at that moment, decided to attack her with a knife he had in his vehicle, according to the arrest application.
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Leverett is being held on $2 million bond. He is scheduled to be back in court on Dec. 6.
