Judge grants Adrian Peeler hearing on early prison release
BRIDGEPORT — It was one of the most horrifying crimes in the city’s history.
Karen Clarke and her 8-year-old son, Leroy “BJ” Brown, were found shot to death in their East Side home on Jan. 7, 1999 just days before they were scheduled to testify in the trial of a major city drug dealer, Russell Peeler Jr. in the 1998 murder of a drug associate.
Now, two decades later, the man alleged to have executed the boy and his mother, Peeler’s younger brother, Adrian Peeler, will get a hearing to determine whether he should be released from prison early.
“The truth is that I no longer see the world at 43 in the same way that I saw it at 22. I realize, sadly, that I stole a lot from my community. Now I would just like the opportunity to give back in a more meaningful way,” Peeler stated in his request for early release.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton set a hearing for Nov. 17 in New Haven federal court on Peeler’s request.
Clark’s brother, Oswald Clarke, said he was adamantly opposed to Peeler’s release.
“No, no, no, there is no way he should get out early,” said Clarke. “He doesn’t deserve to have the privilege to be out in the free world.”
Russell Peeler was later convicted of ordering the murders of Clarke and Brown in state Superior Court. His initial death sentence was later converted to life in prison without the possibility of release after the death sentence was abolished in the state.
But Adrian Peeler, who was identified by an eyewitness as the shooter, was only convicted of conspiracy to commit murder by a jury in Waterbury and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He would be scheduled to be released next April, according to court documents, but is also being held in prison on a consecutive 35-year federal sentence for drug dealing.
He is requesting that
the federal sentence be ended so that he will go free when the state sentence is completed next year.
Peeler initially requested his release from the federal sentence under the First Step Act, which aimed to address concerns that too many Americans were imprisoned for nonviolent crimes as a result of the drug war.
Bridgeport State’s Attorney Joseph Corradino and Assistant State’s Attorney Susan Campbell opposed Peeler’s release under the federal act citing Peeler’s violent criminal history.
“The defendant is not a nonviolent drug offender for whom this legislation was intended,” they wrote in a letter to federal authorities. “He and his brother terrorized the streets of Bridgeport, destroying the very community that raised him, disgracing the memory of their mother who was a Bridgeport police officer, and leaving drugs and bodies in their wake.”
Although it’s been 22 years since the murders, Oswald Clarke said he is still haunted by the deaths of his sister and nephew. He still has photos of them all together in his Florida home.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about them,” he said. And now the man accused of killing them may be coming back into the community, he said.
“Imagine that your family member was murdered and the perpetrator is going to walk out of prison for good behavior. Good behavior, that’s a laugh,” he said.