Published: Tuesday, October 12, 2010
By WALT GOGOLYA, Press Staff
MIDDLETOWN — If plea bargains are not struck the city court house could see numerous murder trials over the next year.
Those facing murder charges appear in the court’s Part A division where more serious matters are heard and possibly tried on the third floor of the city court house.
Accused killer Stephen Morgan, 30, is preparing a defense based on “mental disease or defect,” according to court documents.
Defense lawyer Richard Brown will try to argue that Morgan was mentally unstable when he allegedly shot Wesleyan student Johanna Justin-Jinich several times while she worked at the Red and Black Café inside Broad Street Books on May 6, 2009.
Morgan is charged with murder, intimidation and carrying a pistol without a permit.
Morgan surrendered to police the day after the shooting at a convenience store in nearby Meriden.He returns to court Nov. 9.
Carmen D. Ayala, the city woman currently awaiting trial on charges of stabbing her live-in boyfriend in the chest and killing him is due back in court Oct. 26.
On July 25, 2008, Robert Stowe, 43, was found dead in his 17 Warwick St. apartment at 4:15 a.m. by police who went to the residence in response to a report of a stabbing. When they arrived, there was no answer at the door, according to reports.
Upon forcing their way in, they found Stowe on the ground, propped against the inside of the door.
There was fresh blood on the linoleum floor. Stowe was unresponsive with a puncture wound above his heart. He had no pulse.
Emergency personnel arrived at the scene and pronounced him dead at 4:33 a.m., police said.
Ayala told police she picked up a knife, pointed it at Stowe and stabbed him in self defense after he grabbed her hair and started calling her names, police said.
Based on Ayala’s previous court appearances, it appears the defendant may use the “battered woman’s syndrome” defense, her lawyer said.
John Belanger, who is charged with murdering his estranged wife, Bonnie MacKay-Belanger, on Feb. 25 in Chester is scheduled to appear Nov. 16. Belanger has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and home invasion.
MacKay-Belanger, 51, called police around 7:15 p.m. the night of her death from her home at 7 Bailey Road, Chester, and said her husband was breaking in, police said.
The victim had visible stab wounds on her back, upper chest and arm, police said.
MacKay-Belanger had obtained a protective order against Belanger and had previously filed for divorce.
Edgar Canterbury is charged with murdering Louis D’Antonio in the East Hampton woods in August of 2005. Co-defendant David Hill told police he struck D’Antonio once or twice in the head with a steel rebar in the woods of East Hampton in August 2005.
He said Caterbury took the bar and also struck the victim several times in the head before he collapsed.
The two then fled the scene, Hill said, and buried the murder weapon in the East Hampton State Forrest, along with their bloodied shirts.
Hill said Canterbury told him he was angry with D’Antonio because he had stolen clams from him during a fishing trip.
Hill was convicted on manslaughter on June 9 and sentenced to 30 years in jail. Canterbuy’s case is on the trial list waiting to be scheduled, according to court records.
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