Refugee gets 45 years in niece’s killing
Victim’s mother forgives Bridgeport man for nearly decapitating teen
BRIDGEPORT — A 53-year-old city man was sentenced Friday to 45 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder for the near-decapitation of his 15-year-old niece.
Richard Segabiro fled wartorn Congo with his family in 2005 and claimed he killed his niece because he was suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder.
“While it’s not lost on the court how horrific the life you led in ... Congo was, the sheer brutality that was shown this young girl who was entrusted into your hands convinces the court to impose a substantial sentence,” Superior Court Judge Joan Alexander said in sentencing Segabiro to 45 years for murder.
During the sentencing hearing, the judge read a message she said had been sent by the victim’s mother, Nahoza Chaulinn, who state prosecutors had thought was likely dead.
The message, which had been received by the state Office of Adult Probation, the judge said, claimed Chaulinn had been hiding for months from rebel fighters deep within the Congo jungle. According to the message, Chaulinn then walked hundreds of miles to Uganda to deliver a message to her brother-in-law: “I forgive Richard for my child’s death and I continue to grieve.”
Segabiro had fled tribal violence in Congo with his wife, three young children and his niece, Francine Nyanzanika, in 2005, settling in a second-floor
apartment on Fairfield Avenue with the help of a refugee agency.
Shortly after 11 p.m. on Feb. 19, 2018, 911 operators received a call from Segabiro that he had just killed someone.
Police said when they arrived at the home, they found Segabiro standing on the porch covered in blood. They said he told them he had just killed his daughter because he had PTSD and believed she was trying to poison him.
Senior Assistant State’s Attorney David Applegate said police found the girl, who was actually his niece, lying in a pool of blood on the bathroom floor. Applegate said she had nearly been decapitated.
The defendant’s wife and children were asleep in the next room, the prosecutor said.
An autopsy showed the 15-year-old girl had been sexually assaulted by someone later identified as Segabiro.
Segabiro, who later agreed to plead guilty to murder, was about to be sentenced last month when his wife suddenly stood up in the back of the courtroom and called out in her native Swahili that not only was the girl’s mother alive but she had spoken to her by telephone.
A Swahili interpreter told the judge Segabiro’s wife told him she had located the victim’s mother, her sister, in Congo and briefly spoke to her on the phone. She said the call was brief because of the isolated location but she intended to call her again to get her opinion about the sentencing. Segabiro; his lawyer, Public Defender Joseph Bruckmann; and state prosecutors had all believed the girl’s mother had been killed along with the rest of her immediate family by Congolese rebels.
While Applegate told the judge he was skeptical of the wife’s claims, the judge agreed to continue the case for the mother’s input and held off on sentencing until Friday’s court date.
Asked Friday by the judge if he had anything to say, Segabiro through a Swahili interpreter said he had just one question, “When do I get out of jail?”