Suspect in Griswold triple murder tasted freedom only briefly
The 26-year-old man suspected in the ruthless killing of three members of the Lindquist family and torching of their Griswold home on Dec. 20, 2017, had been released from prison just three months earlier after serving a 10-year sentence for violent crimes he committed as a 16-year-old.
Sergio Javony Correa had been arrested several times before he was tried in adult court for armed robberies and other crimes he committed in Waterbury in 2008, according to his case file in Superior Court in the Brass City. He received what is known as a split sentence of 20 years in prison, suspended after 10 years served, followed by three years of probation.
While incarcerated, he received six tickets, or disciplinary reports between 2008 and 2014, according to the Department of Correction: three for fighting, two for disobeying a di-
rect order, and one for being in an unauthorized place.
Released from the Department of Correction on Sept. 8, 2017, Correa signed paperwork indicating he understood that if he violated probation, he would be subject to serving the remaining portion of the sentence — in his case, the 10 out 20 years that was not suspended.
Correa, sampling freedom for the first time as an adult, almost immediately failed to comply with the conditions of probation, according to an affidavit written by probation officer Dawud Davis.
The probation officer documented a lengthy list of “technical” violations, which are misbehaviors that are not criminal in themselves but eventually could add up to an arrestable offense. Correa failed to show up for court-ordered substance abuse and mental health evaluations, missed routine meetings with his probation officer and was unemployed. In November 2017, he was pulled over for driving without a license and other minor motor vehicle offenses.
Horrific crime
Then, on Dec. 20, 2017, Correa and his sister, Ruth Correa, allegedly carried out one of the most deadly home invasion-murders since three members of the Petit family brutally were murdered in their Cheshire home in July 2007.
With Sergio Correa taking the lead, the siblings are accused of convincing a drug-seeking young adult, Matthew Lindquist, 21, to set up his parents, Kenneth and Janet Lindquist, for a burglary at their home in the Kenwood Estates subdivision in Griswold. Instead of sneaking into the home while the parents slept and taking their rifles in exchange for providing Matthew Lindquist with drugs, state police allege the Correas fatally stabbed him and disposed his body in the woods nearby.
Then, the state police say, the Correas broke into the Lindquist home, killed the awakened parents, stole guns, a laptop and other items and set the house on fire before fleeing with Matthew Lindquist’s car. Ruth Correa said they drove her brother’s car and Lindquist’s car to a Glastonbury apartment complex, where Sergio Correa allegedly set it on fire.
Sergio Correa is being held on an unrelated drug charge and, as of Friday, had not been formally charged in the home invasion/murder/arson.
Sister arrested in May
His sister was arrested last month, and the state police application for Ruth Correa’s arrest warrant indicates it was “Gio,” the brother with the criminal past, who was the lead aggressor in the hourslong spree of mayhem that left Janet, Kenneth and Matthew Lindquist dead.
The affidavit indicates that Ruth Correa confessed some of the crimes to a security guard in her Main Street, Hartford, apartment building and earlier this month provided a complete confession to state police. She was unemployed at the time of her arrest and, according to a court file, was in the process of being evicted from her apartment for nonpayment of her $76-a-month rent. Ruth Correa appears to have no prior criminal history, and a family member said at her arraignment that she was “a straight-A student.”
In her conversation with the security guard, Ruth Correa bragged that she liked to slip drugs into men’s drinks and rob them and said that after she returned to her brother’s car covered in Matthew Lindquist’s blood, he said to her, “Man, I didn’t know you lived this life,” and she responded, “Buddy, for the 10 years you’ve been locked up, I’ve been doing stuff you don’t even know about.”
Son of a correction officer
Sergio Correa is the son of Pablo Correa, who has worked as a correction officer since 2001 and currently is assigned to the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution, according to a Department of Correction spokesman. Sergio Correa’s court file indicates he was born in Bristol and that, prior to being arrested in 2008, he was living in Waterbury with his mother, Heather Anglero.
Questioned by police in September 2008 in connection with armed robberies in Waterbury, the then 16-year-old Correa told police his mother was mad at him because he kept getting arrested and sent him to Hartford to live with his father. He said he kept returning to Waterbury, where a bunch of his “boys” lived. He told police someone asked him to hold on to “a black gun” for him before going to prison and that he kept the gun with him all the time “because Hartford is really dangerous.”
Correa fired a round from a .380 caliber pistol into the air and shot a truck driver in the leg during one robbery, according to the court file. He used the gun in another robbery, police said, in which he and his friends, who had been drinking, wanted marijuana and targeted a man on the street who wore a chain with a marijuana medallion. When the would-be victim asserted the gun was a fake, Correa’s friends said he turned and shot a wall, then fired off two additional rounds.
He eventually pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery, attempted first-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery, first-degree assault, carrying a dangerous weapon and criminal use of a weapon.
Correa also was convicted of first-degree larceny and second-degree arson stemming from other crimes he committed in 2008 in Waterbury. His court files in those cases were not immediately available this week.
Following his release from prison in September 2017, Correa moved in with his grandfather on Donald Street in Hartford and, his sister told police, was working for a company called Ment 2 be Movers.
Case picks up
The Correas were questioned following the Griswold fire, in which the parents’ remains were discovered, but state police did not put the case together until early May, when the remains of their identified person of interest, Matthew Lindquist, were discovered near the family home by a dog walker.
But Sergio Correa already was back in prison by that time, having been charged Feb. 21 with interfering with police, possession of a controlled substance and possession of narcotics with intent to sell. Hartford police said he had a plastic bag containing nine smaller baggies, each of which had “a white, rock-like substance” inside.
That same day, Correa was charged with violation of probation, according to court records.
Michael Hines, assistant director of Adult Probation for the state Judicial Branch, said he couldn’t comment on the case specifically but that in general, offenders are assessed prior to their release from prison to determine the level of supervision. They might front-load a higher level of supervision into the beginning of the probationary period, with weekly visits to the probation officer and other requirements, until the person appears stabilized.
“We try to work with them the best we can,” Hines said. “We try to change an offender’s behavior and get them back to being productive members of our community, and that’s not the easiest job in the world.”