Judge rejects Adrian Peeler early release bid
NEW HAVEN — A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a request for an early release for former Bridgeport drug kingpin Adrian Peeler — convicted of conspiring to kill a woman and her young son — following impassioned pleas to keep him behind bars by the victims’ family.
Twenty years after he was last in court, sentenced to 25 years for the deaths of Karen Clarke and her 8-year-old son, Leroy “B.J.” Brown, and another 35 years in federal court for his drug operation, Peeler stood before U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton and asked to be released for compassionate reasons.
“I take full responsibility for all my actions that led me to be here today,” Peeler told the judge. “I sold drugs in the community … It is something I think of every day.”
Peeler said that during his 20 years behind bars he has turned his life around and worked hard to become a better person.
But while Arterton lauded Peeler for making progress while in prison, she said, “Shockingly missing was any expression of remorse or apology to the families of Miss Clarke and B.J. He didn’t turn around to face them and simply say ‘I’m sorry.’”
The judge did reduce Peeler’s federal drug sentence to 15 years to reflect current sentencing guidelines but added that it will run consecutively to any state sentence he has remaining.
It was one of the most horrifying crimes in the city’s history.
Clarke and B.J. were found shot to death in their East Side home on Jan. 7, 1999 just days before they were scheduled to testify in the trial of a major city drug dealer, Russell
Peeler Jr.
Russell Peeler was convicted of ordering the murders of Clarke and Brown in state Superior Court. His initial death sentence was later converted to life in prison without the possibility of release after the death sentence was abolished in the state.
Adrian Peeler, who was identified by an eyewitness as the shooter, was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder by a jury in Waterbury and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He would be scheduled to be released next April, according to court documents, but is also being held in prison on a consecutive 35-year federal sentence for drug dealing.
He requested Tuesday that the federal sentence be ended so that he will go free when the state sentence is completed next year. His father, Russell Peeler Sr., told the judge Adrian Peeler could come live with him in Las Vegas.
Holding up a large photograph of Clarke and B.J. during Tuesday’s hearing, Oswald Clarke, Karen Clarke’s brother, urged the judge to reject Peeler’s request.
“There is irony in this man seeking a compassionate release,” Clarke said, as Peeler, seated a short distance away, turned his head to avoid looking at the photographs. “He had zero compassion for my sister and nephew. This man should not be on the streets, he will kill again.”
Janet Gordon, Clarke’s cousin, had testified during Peeler’s trial.
“He has yet to show any remorse to my family for taking away B.J. and Karen,” she told Arterton on Tuesday. “In order to change you first must apologize for what you did. If he is released, I’m scared for my family, I’m scared for everyone who testified against him.”
Both Oswald Clarke and Gordon said later as they left the federal courthouse that they were satisfied with the judge’s ruling.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Gifford vehemently opposed Peeler’s early release, calling the murders of Clarke and B.J. “one of the most horrific executions in the state of Connecticut.”
“Killing witnesses is the ultimate attack on the judicial system,” Gifford said, pointing out that the case resulted in the creation of the state’s witness protection program.
Bridgeport State’s Attorney Joseph Corradino prosecuted the Peeler brothers for the murders.
“The defendant is not a nonviolent drug offender for whom this legislation was intended,” he wrote in a letter that was presented to the judge. “He and his brother terrorized the streets of Bridgeport, destroying
the very community that raised him, disgracing the memory of their mother who was a Bridgeport police officer, and leaving drugs and bodies in their wake.”