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| © Provided by Hartford Police Sergio Correa is expected to be charged on Monday in connection with last year's Griswold triple slaying. |
By David Owens and Dave Altimari, The Hartford Courant
The brother of a Hartford, Connecticut woman charged in the triple slaying of a Griswold family during a botched fake robbery last year was charged with murder Monday in the brutal attack and yelled out during his court appearance that his sister was lying about his involvement.
Sergio Correa, whose sister Ruth Correa was previously arrested in the deaths of Kenneth, Janet and Matthew Lindquist, was arraigned in Superior Court in New London and held on $3 million bail. He was charged with three counts of felony murder, one count of murder with special circumstances, first-degree robbery, first-degree arson, second-degree arson and one count of home invasion. Sergio Correa was being held on unrelated violation of probation charges.
Sergio Correa, 26, was released from prison three months before the December 2017 killings after serving part of a 10-year sentence on charges including attempted robbery and arson, court records show.
Ruth Correa, 23, was arrested in May and charged with three counts of felony murder and a single count of murder with special circumstances, as well as home invasion, first-degree arson and first-degree robbery. She is being held on $2.5 million bail.
Ruth Correa told investigators that Sergio Correa had arranged with Matthew Lindquist to trade drugs for guns owned by Kenneth Lindquist. The plan, she said, was to make the exchange look like a fake robbery.
Sergio Correa’s lawyer, William Gerace, has said his client contends he was not involved and that Ruth Correa lied to investigators.
After his brief arraignment Monday, Sergio Correa said, “by the way, she’s lying,” as he was led away.
“It’s all hearsay,” said Gerace. “There’s no DNA yet. You heard me client’s outburst. He said his sister’s lying. I’m going with what he said at this moment.”
The pair are accused of murdering Kenneth and Janet Lindquist in their home at 70 Kenwood Estates and then setting the house on fire in December. They are also accused of stabbing to death Matthew Lindquist.
Ruth Correa told investigators that she had gone to the quiet Griswold neighborhood with her brother for what she thought was going to be an exchange of drugs for guns and that her brother was responsible for much of the violence that night, according to the arrest warrant affidavit in her case.
On the day of the slayings, Ruth Correa told the investigators, a man who she did not know got into her brother's car asking about the drugs, which she thought was heroin. She said that Sergio Correa told the man that he was not going to get the drugs until Sergio Correa got what he wanted, the affidavit said. That man turned out to be Matthew Lindquist.
The two men then talked about a fake robbery and that the basement door to the home was unlocked, she told investigators.
But when they drove toward the house and parked the car, the man she didn’t know panicked and started to run, the affidavit said. Sergio Correa chased after him with a machete striking him in the back of the head.
She told investigators her brother then threatened to tie him up with duct tape and zip ties, but the other man began to "freak out," the affidavit said.
Her brother then began to stab the man. At one point, Sergio Correa handed her the knife and guided it into the man, she told investigators. She told police she stabbed him about 10 times.
Ruth Correa said the stabbing happened about 50 feet from the road in some trees, the affidavit said. Matthew Lindquist's remains were found in May by state police in woods not far from the home.
Kenneth and Janet Lindquist were beaten before their house was set on fire. Their bodies were found in the remains.
Sergio Correa was released from prison on Sept. 8, 2017 and placed on three years of probation. He had been sentenced to 10 years in prison on March 4, 2011 on various convictions, including assault and robbery. He had been in prison, held on a pre-trial bond, since his arrest in Waterbury in 2008.
Correa was ordered by probation department to report to Hartford Behavorial Health for placement in a drug rehabilitation program. He missed his first four appointments and subsequent appointments, court records show.
It is unclear how Correa and Lindquist may have met. But a sister of Matthew Lindquists told state police that the last time she had any contact with her brother was around Halloween when through Facebook he explained that he was still attending an unidentified rehabilitation center in Hartford.
About a week after the killings, police and probation officials obtained a search warrant for Sergio Correa’s car and his apartment. In an interview with police, he denied knowing Matthew Lindquist.
In February, Correa was arrested by Hartford police and charged with interfering with a police officer, possession of a controlled substance and possession of narcotics with intent to sell. Hartford police said that Correa was found with nine bags of a “white rock-like substance.”
He was charged with violation of probation and has been held since then.
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