Designer of drones that shoot sentenced to year

Clinton man convicted in fight with cops

MIDDLETOWN — Austin Haughwout, the Clinton man who designed drones that could fire a gun and shoot flames and who has had multiple run-ins with police, was sentenced Tuesday to a year in jail.

In November, a Middlesex Superior Court jury convicted Haughwout, 22, of two counts of assault on a police officer and one count each of disobeying an officer’s signal and interfering with police.

Judge Jose A. Suarez denied Haughwout’s request for bail while he pursues an appeal, and Haughwout was taken into custody to begin the sentence, which is seven years in prison, suspended after he serves one year, and five years of probation.

Haughwout’s lawyer, Jon Schoenhorn, of Hartford, said he would appeal the judge’s decision on the appeal bond and will file paperwork to appeal the conviction.

The convictions were for an incident on July 19, 2015, outside the Henry Carter Hull Library in Clinton and a subsequent fight with police at police headquarters.

Also Tuesday, prosecutor Russell C. Zentner said he was dropping charges of child pornography, enticing a minor and related charges that had been filed against Haughwout. The prosecutor said he could not meet his burden of proof on the charges at trial.

Schoenhorn said that not only could the state not prove the charges, but there also “wasn’t even a scintilla of evidence” that the crimes occurred. No evidence could be found on Haughwout’s electronic devices, Schoenhorn said.

Prosecutors in Middletown had offered Haughwout a three-year suspended jail sentence and three years of probation in exchange for a guilty plea to three misdemeanors: two counts of interfering with police and one count of third-degree assault. But Haughwout rejected the deal and opted for trial.

Haughwout posted videos of his drones to Youtube. One showed a drone firing a semi-automatic handgun in a wooded area. The other showed a drone shooting flames.