Closing arguments conclude in gruesome triple slaying
Sergio Correa faces life without possibility of release if convicted
NEW LONDON — Both sides wrapped up closing arguments and sent the case to jurors Thursday in one of the most coldblooded murders in recent memory — the home invasion and slaughter of three members of a family in the eastern Connecticut town of Griswold after a guns-for-drugs deal fell apart.
Prosecutors left jurors with an unemotional recapitulation of their case, a contrast to the boxes of grisly evidence they presented over Sergio Correa’s monthlong trial. Correa, 30, of Hartford, is accused of confronting Matthew Lindquist over the December 2017 gun deal, hacking him with a machete and stabbing him more than 50 times, before bludgeoning and strangling his parents, Kenneth and Janet Lindquist, and burning down their house to incinerate the bodies and any other evidence.
The defense tried to pin the crimes on Correa’s sister Ruth. Ruth Correa, 27, also of Hartford, confessed to helping her brother in the triple murder. The evidence at trial suggests she folded under state police questioning and, eight months after the crime, agreed to testify against her brother in return for a 40-year sentence that she hopes will get her out of prison alive. The defense argued to jurors that Ruth Correa — and to a lesser degree Correa’s ex-girlfriend, Tanisha Vicento, of Hartford, who was not charged — were bullied by detectives into wrongly accusing Sergio Correa.
Public defender Corrie Mainville told juror that detectives identified Correa early on as their sole suspect and fed information damaging to Correa to the women, who later “regurgitated” the allegations in their police statements. Prosecutor Stephen Carney barely acknowledged the defense charge, telling the jury simply that Correa “is guilty of the murders of Matthew and Kenneth and Janet Lindquist.”
Correa, in a crisp blue suit, sat quietly with his defense team during the hours of closing arguments. He is accused of 14 crimes, running from murder to arson and faces life without the possibility of release if convicted. The gallery behind him was crowded shoulder-to-shoulder with family and friends of the Lindquists.
The evidence at the trial revealed that Matthew Lindquist, who was killed at age 21, was a heroin addict and had agreed to allow Correa to steal guns from the family house in return for drugs. The deal was to unfold over the night of Dec. 19 and 20, just before Christmas in 2017.
Cellphone information collected by the prosecution shows Correa was late arriving in Griswold from Hartford. The telephone messaging showed Lindquist frantic and suffering from withdrawal, but police have said they believe he decided anyway to back out of the deal.
The prosecution said that when Correa eventually arrived with Ruth, they chased Lindquist into a wooded area. Correa caught him and struck him on the head with a
machete he carried in his car. The blow fractured Matthew Lindquist’s skull and before he died, he whispered, “Why?” The siblings told him, falsely, that they would call an ambulance, then stabbed him dozens of times, the prosecution said.
The state medical examiner said Lindquist had 67 slash and stab wounds. Ruth Correa said her brother pressured her to participate in the stabbing, guiding her hand as she held a knife.
The siblings then entered the Lindquist home, where Matthew’s father Kenneth had fallen asleep on a sofa. Correa attacked and killed Kenneth Lindquist with a baseball bat, the prosecution said.
The struggle awakened Janet Lindquist, who Ruth Correa said her bother ordered her to hold in her bedroom. When Janet Lindquist pleaded to know what was happening, Ruth Correa said she replied that it was all Matthew’s fault. Soon after, Ruth said her brother ordered her to kill Janet Lindquist and she refused. At that point, the prosecution said Correa ordered Janet Lindquist to kneel on the floor with her face toward her bed and he beat her in the back of the head with his bat. When it appeared she was still alive, he is accused of trying to strangle her. Medical evidence indicates that she was still breathing when her house was set on fire.
Ruth Correa said she and her brother collected valuables from the home, including family Christmas presents that had been stored for the holiday before setting the house on fire and driving off.
The next day, Ruth Correa had a text message exchange with a friend about the previous night’s events, according to the defense closing argument.
“Just got home,” Ruth said. “How’d it go?” the friend asked. “According to plan,” Ruth said. “Have fun?” the friend asked.