CT judge orders arrest of Florida man whose lawyer says he’s dead

MILFORD — A judge ordered a Florida man arrested after he missed a court date on charges he helped scam an 82-year-old Milford woman out of $83,000 — despite the fact that the man’s lawyer said his client died months ago.

Johnny Masesa, 45, was due in court Nov. 4 on a first-degree larceny charge connected to the 2018 theft from the woman, who told police a man claiming to be from Publisher’s Clearing House sweepstakes called her saying she “was in the running for a prize,” but needed to transfer money to claim it.

Over the course of a week, according to an arrest warrant, the woman withdrew $83,000 out of her accounts and deposited them into others — $25,000 of which went to an account in Masesa’s name.

Masesa was arrested in January 2019 in Massachusetts and waived extradition to Connecticut, after which he pleaded not guilty in the case. He posted $25,000 bond using a Florida address.

But when the case was called in court last week, Masesa wasn’t there.

His lawyer, Douglas Rudolph, said the reason was simple: Masesa died from complications of malaria months ago in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he has family.

Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Howard

Stein said Rudolph emailed him in June letting him know of his client’s death.

“At that time I asked for a death certificate,” Stein said. “After some period of time, I received a death certificate, or at least what was purported to be a death certificate.”

He said the document was hand-written and had what appeared to be several corrections using correction fluid.

He said neither the Milford police nor federal authorities have been able to verify Masesa’s death.

Stein said he was hesitant to drop the case, while noting he didn’t suspect Masesa’s lawyer of any wrongdoing.

He asked Judge Peter Brown to order a rearrest in the case.

“Obviously, if Mr. Masesa is in fact deceased, it would be difficult for the authorities to execute that warrant,” Stein said.

On the other hand, if the state verifies Masesa is dead, the arrest order could be vacated and the charges dropped.

Rudolph did not oppose the prosecutor’s request.

He said he’s tried to reach the doctor listed on the death certificate to no avail and that there are issues between Masesa’s wife in Orlando and his family in Africa.

“My understanding is that Mr. Masesa’s family in the Congo isn’t too fond of Mr. Masesa’s wife, who lives in Florida,” he said. “She seemed upset at the fact that the family wasn’t being transparent with her in providing some of the documentation I needed to put this matter to rest.”

The judge then ordered Masesa rearrested, and to be held on $100,000 bond if he does turn up.