Man gets 20 years for role in home invasion

LITCHFIELD » An East Hartford man will serve at least two decades in prison in connection with a 2013 home invasion and robbery in New Hartford.

Andre White, 24, of 29 Footpath Lane, East Hartford, at the time of the incident, was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison, suspended after 20, with five years probation in Litchfield Superior Court, according to Assistant Clerk Bob Stearns.

White was charged with home invasion, first-degree robbery —

firearm threat, first-degree robbery — deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit firstdegree burglary, and tampering with a witness, in connection with the April 2013 incident.

According to an affidavit seeking a warrant for his arrest, White, along with two other men, followed a New Hartford man as he drove home, then stopped him at gunpoint as he stepped onto the back porch.

The three men held the New Hartford man at gunpoint, according to the affidavit, and stole a series of items from him and his home, including camera equipment, a shotgun, a rifle, his cellphone, cash, and a gold pocket watch.

The stolen items had an approximately value of more than $29,000, according to the affidavit.

White, Henry Le and Trayvon Dunning decided to rob people while they were incarcerated together in the Garner Correctional Institution, according to an interview recounted in the affidavit.

Le was previously sentenced to 14 years in prison in connection with the incident, while Dunning pleaded guilty to a first-degree burglary charge, according to state records. He is next scheduled to appear in Litchfield Superior Court July 14.

White said he was innocent of the charges Tuesday in Litchfield Superior Court, and that he had not been fairly treated in the judicial process.

“I am not guilty of the offenses,” said White. “I don’t feel I’ve been treated fairly through all the proceedings.”

White filed a series of motions contesting various aspects of the case and judicial process, according to the file for the case.

He said he recognized the seriousness of the charges, and expressed sympathy on Tuesday.

“I do feel badly for what happened to the victim,” he said.

State attorney David Shannon said Tuesday that the incident had altered the way the New Hartford man goes about his life.

“To this day, it’s altered his behavior,” said Shannon. “He doesn’t feel that same degree of safety in his (house) that everyone should feel.”

The incident affects the populace as a whole, Shannon said, when they hear about it.

“It just gives everybody a depreciated sense of security,” said Shannon. “That’s a serious effect of what this defendant did with his codefendants.”

The incident might not have happened, Shannon said, without prodding from White. White later reached out to Dunning, he said, speaking with an individual close to him in an attempt to get him not to testify. White was found guilty by a jury, leading to the sentencing.

“He was not remorseful at all. He was conniving, he was calculating, and he was dishonest,” said Shannon, in describing the call to Dunning.

Defense attorney Dennis McDonough argued that White was a young man being convicted of serious offenses, and argued that his lack of a significant criminal record — he was previously convicted of criminal trespassing, according to Shannon, which had been substituted for an initial charge of first-degree burglary — and the lack of violence in the case should equal a lesser sentence.

“I think that mitigates it a bit,” said McDonough, in regard to the lack of violence. White wished to further his education, McDonough said.

“He wishes, frankly, to get on and get educated in his life,” said McDonough.

McDonough recommended a sentence of 15 years, while Shannon recommended one of 20 to 25.