Man convicted of rape, robbery at age 14, resentenced to 37 years

BRIDGEPORT — The last time Keith Belcher was in court here, he sent three judicial marshals to the hospital and sparked a melee in the courtroom that drew more than a dozen police officers to quell.

That was 25 years ago when the then-17year-old Belcher was sentenced to 60 years for the repeated rape and beating of a 59year-old woman in her Black Rock home.

On Monday the much older and apparently contrite Belcher sat before Superior Court Judge Kevin Russo asking to be allowed to go home.

“When I heard the verdict in court I reacted in the moment because I felt my life was over,” Belcher said, reading from a hand-written statement. “I scared a lot of people and hurt people who didn’t deserve it. The court officers had always been nice to me. I hate that I hurt them.”

His plea, along with his apology for hurting the victim, found some sympathy with the judge who refused to immediately release Belcher but resentenced him to 37 years in prison followed by five years of probation.

Belcher, now 43, could be released in seven years.

On Christmas Eve 1993, the victim was unloading Christmas presents for her grandchildren from the trunk of her car when she was approached by the then-14year-old Belcher who was out on a holiday furlough from the state’s juvenile detention center where he was serving a sentence for shooting his younger sister.

Police said Belcher stuck a gun in the victim’s neck, then dragged her into her home.

The victim handed Belcher her purse and pleaded with him not to hurt her but police said he repeatedly sexually assaulted her and then beat her in the head with his gun.

A six-member jury in 1997 convicted Belcher of kidnapping, sexual assault, robbery and burglary charges.

The verdict was barely out of the foreman’s mouth when Belcher punched the judicial marshal standing beside him in the side of the face and shoved another into the wall. He then charged at the jury.

Belcher was tackled by marshals just feet from the jury box. But it didn’t end there.

Belcher’s family then began leaping over the spectator benches in the back of the courtroom attempting to come to his aid. They attacked the marshals. One woman leaped on a female marshal’s back, pummeling her in the face and head.

When it was finally over, a half-dozen members of Belcher’s family were arrested and three marshals went to the hospital, one on a stretcher.

A large group of Belcher’s family, several who were in the courtroom at the time of the verdict, filled the courtroom Monday to support Belcher’s plea for release.

“Let my brother come home,” Belcher’s sister, Leticia Riley, calmly told the judge Monday. “Thirty years is a long time.”

In January 2022, the state Supreme Court overturned Belcher’s 60-year-sentence, ruling that the sentencing judge in 1997 inadvertently referenced a debunked 1990s sentencing theory that supported racial stereotypes when he referred to Belcher as a “super predator.”

The case was then sent to Russo, the presiding criminal court judge, for resentencing.

State’s Attorney Joseph Corradino urged the judge to impose a 50-year prison term on Belcher based on the harm Belcher inflicted on the now 89-year-old victim.

Corradino also called on Belcher to acknowledge his conduct for the first time.

“Only then can genuine rehabilitation take place,” the prosecutor continued as Belcher sat at the defense table with his eyes closed. “It’s the flame of conscience that keeps people from committing an offense again.”

Belcher’s lawyer, Michael Brown, said he and his client were not disputing the horrific nature of the crime.

“Not everything belongs on Keith’s shoulders but a lot of it does,” he acknowledged, but he continued that Belcher is a very different person 30 years later.

“I am sorry that I hurt (the victim). I am sorry for what happened. I am sorry that it has taken me so long to say that,” Belcher read from his statement.

“I do believe you are remorseful,” the judge told him. “I do accept your comments as true and I do believe you are remorseful.”

However, the judge continued that he could not ignore the level of violence Belcher used against the victim.

“For as long as he has been incarcerated the victim has held herself in self-incarceration, afraid to go out,” he said.

But the judge said he is also now required to take a defendant’s young age when they committed the crime into account when imposing a sentence and studies that have shown a teenaged brain is not fully developed.