West Hartford boy being held
12-year-old accused of killing his sister has been released from hospital, sent to juvenile detention
The 12-year-old West Hartford boy accused of killing his sister has been released from a hospital and is being held at the Juvenile Detention Center in Hartford as lawyers and judicial officials determine where he will be placed.
The boy was charged last week in the death of his sister, Brigid Curtin, who was stabbed twice, including once in the neck, at the family’s Stoner Drive home on Dec. 17. He was charged with murder with special circumstances and first-degree assault. The boy also was charged with assault in the stabbing of his mother, Janemarie Murphy. She is at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center recovering from multiple wounds. A motive has not been revealed. The charge of murder with special circumstances was filed because the victim was younger than 16.
The boy, who has not been identified by name by police, was taken to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center with minor injuries after police found him at the house. He was arraigned in the hospital last week. Sources confirmed Thursday he had been moved to the Juvenile Detention Center earlier this week.
Neither state officials nor the boy’s attorney, Trent LaLima of the Hubert J. Santos Law Firm, would comment Thursday on the boy’s current location. The parents are being represented by Hartford attorney John Droney, who also
declined to comment Thursday.
Judicial officials and attorneys are struggling to determine where to place the boy, considered to be one of the youngest murder defendants in the state’s history.
The Juvenile Detention Center is not considered a long-term solution, and many options that may have been available previously are no longer available after a series of new laws went into effect July 1.
Juvenile offenders 14 or younger face limited punishment under Connecticut juvenile justice laws. The boy’s case will be heard entirely in juvenile court in the same Broad Street building where he is being held. His case will be kept secret.
Deputy Chief State’s Attorney Kevin Lawlor has said the maximumpunishment for a person age 14 or younger would be 30 months of probation supervision with or without residential placement, minus any time spent in pretrial detention. That maximum was just changed as of July 1. It was previously 48 months.
Prior to July 1 of this year, the options available to the court upon a finding of delinquency in juvenile court included a discharge with a warning, probation for a specified period of time, but no statutory limit, or a commitment to the Department of Children and Families for placement in a residential treatment facility, including the Connecticut Juvenile Training School for boys.
But the training school was closed July 1, so that option is no longer available. With the closing of the training school, the state does not have a secure facility designated for the treatment of serious juvenile offenders. Sources familiar with the juvenile system said Thursday the state is trying to come up with alternative plans for serious juvenile offenders.
The judicial branch has treatment programs and services for adjudicated delinquents that require secure housing within the two state-operated juvenile detention centers. The capacity of the programs is a total of 24. Recently, there were eight delinquents on a waiting list for admission to the program, said one official.
“The judicial branch continues to work toward contracting for smaller contracted secure facilities in the community, which will reduce reliance on the detention centers,” said judicial department spokeswoman Melissa Farley. “In addition, the judicial branch has awarded contracts for two staffsecure facilities with a total capacity of 20 beds, which began taking clients at the beginning of the month.”
If it is determined through the juvenile court process that a child has a mental health diagnosis, he or she can be sent for an indefinite period to the state’s psychiatric center for children — the Solnit South campus in Middletown — for psychiatric evaluation and treatment. A child could also be sent to Solnit South if he or she is deemed not competent to understand the court process.
But Solnit South has had its own problems. There were six suicide attempts by residents of the children’s psychiatric center, run by the state’s child protection agency, between November 2017 and March 2018.
Once the boy’s juvenile sentence is completed, the state could ask a judge to commit him if he is still a danger either to himself or to others. Under that scenario, he could be placed in a psychiatric facility until he is 20, sources said.
One state juvenile official said “coming up with an appropriate response to a young child charged with a serious crime such as murder presents a difficult challenge for the court because it is uncommon and because the court has to determine the needs of the child and at the same time balance the need to protect public safety.”
The incident occurred shortly after school ended Dec. 17. Both of the children were seventhgraders at the Sedgwick Middle School. Their father, Timothy Curtin, is an executive at Bank of America, and Murphy is a longtime lobbyist working for the Hartford law firm of Murtha Cullina LLP.
Officers went to the home around 3:30 p.m. after Murphy called 911 and told the dispatcher that she and her daughter were stabbed by her son.
Police spent two days gathering evidence from the garage area, the driveway and inside the home. While police have released few details of the attack, there were blood stains visible in the driveway and in the garage area which police had separately taped off. They also used metal detectors to search the front yard, although it is unclear what they were searching for.
Police have said little about the investigation. They have denied a request from The Courant for the 911 tape.