Sentencing day arrives for siblings
Correas convicted of 2017 slayings of 3 in Griswold
Sergio and Ruth Correa — the Hartford siblings who in 2017 viciously killed three members of the Lindquist family in a torturous home invasion in Griswold — will be sentenced back-to-back on Tuesday in New London Superior Court.
More than four years ago, the siblings drove down a winding road in sleepy Griswold a few days before Christmas and committed one of the most coldblooded crime frenzies in recent Connecticut history.
Sergio Correa, who was found guilty by a jury on more than a dozen charges after a gut-wrenching weekslong trial and was painted by his sister — who took the stand against him — as the criminal mastermind behind the night, will be sentenced at 10 a.m. by Judge Hunchu Kwak, who presided over his trial late last year.
Ruth Correa, Sergio Correa’s adopted sister, will be sentenced at 2 p.m. by Judge Hilary B. Strackbein, who oversees New London Superior Court Part A, where major crimes are heard. Ruth Correa testified against her older brother as part of a plea deal with the state that she hopes will lessen her sentence and give her a chance to freely see her two young children again someday.
The Correas went to Griswold on Dec. 19, 2017 to carry out a plot to trade drugs for guns with the youngest Lindquist, 21-year-old Matthew, who was struggling with withdrawals from heroin.
Instead of the deal they’d planned over a flurry of frantic texts, the Correas chased Matthew Lindquist into the woods near Pachaug Pond, attacked him with a machete and left him to die, according to court testimony. They then wound their way to his parent’s house, where they killed the family dog, Skylar, with a golf club, shattered Kenneth Lindquist’s skull with a baseball bat, taunted and strangled Janet Lindquist and torched the family’s home to the ground.
The siblings reportedly stole Matthew Lindquist’s car, which they also set fire to, and stole the family’s Christmas presents.
Sergio Correa was convicted Dec. 14 on 13 of the 14 crimes he was charged with, including two counts of felony murder, three counts of murder and one count of murder with special circumstances. His trial had been delayed repeatedly, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic shuttering statewide courts and suspending jury trials. He faces more than life in prison.
Ruth Correa’s plea deal includes a suggested sentence of 40 years instead of the more than 100 years she might have been sentenced to without the deal.
Eric Lindquist, Kenneth and Janet Lindquist’s surviving son and older brother of Matthew Lindquist, of Griswold, sat through every minute of the trial and plans to attend the back-to-back sentencings. Family and friends of the Lindquists packed the court room every day of the weekslong trial, which included testimony from detectives, medical examiners, neighbors, friends and Ruth Correa.
Both siblings have been held in custody since their arrests. Sergio Correa will be sentenced first on Tuesday, followed by his sister.