The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
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It’s interesting to find out what has happened to people you’ve come to know through this newspaper, or issues we’ve discussed and debated. With that in mind, I’d like to update you on some of the columns I’ve written in recent months. And I’ll try to avoid mentioning the coronavirus — though I can’t promise.
‘Fighting for justice in daughter’s cold-blooded murder’
You read in my Jan. 31 column about family and friends of Emily Todd pleading for a long prison term for the man accused of killing her with a single bullet to the back of the head in Bridgeport on Dec. 8, 2018. Emily, a Bethel resident who cared for the elderly in a nursing home, was only 25.
Brandon Roberts is accused of killing Emily. After he offered to plead guilty in return for a 45year-sentence, Emily’s family packed the Fairfield County courthouse in Bridgeport Jan. 28 and begged Judge Joan Alexander to reject the offer.
“Justice will only be served if Brandon Roberts spends the rest of his life in prison,” Emily’s mother Jennifer Lawlor told the judge.
Roberts didn’t meet Jennifer’s glare in the courtroom that day, as far as I could see. He had dated Emily a few times before she broke it off. He asked for one last meeting, for a cup of coffee, and the trusting soul that she was, she agreed. The next day her body was found face down on a narrow slice of sand near a pier. The killer stole her car, cellphone and debit card, then drained her bank account.
By the end of 2018 police charged Roberts with murder, murder in the commission of a felony, robbery in the first degree with a deadly weapon, and carrying a pistol without a permit. Police say he confessed to killing Emily; he entered a not guilty plea and is held on a $2 million bond.
Judge Alexander thanked the dozens who spoke on Jan. 28 “for bringing Emily here to this proceeding today,” but said by law their wish for life imprisonment could not be granted. The most would be 60 years if a trial found him guilty of those charges. The judge is required to put out a plea offer before a trial.
She was scheduled to announce her decision on March 11.
But it didn’t happen. It was postponed because the state has not replaced the head district attorney who was handling the case, Jenn said. The first suggestion of a new date was April 7, “but I refused as that is Emily’s birthday and I will not spend it with the person who killed her,” Jenn texted. The next date is April 29. Let’s hope the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t interfere.
The waiting is “horrible,” Jenn said, but she is meanwhile directing her considerable energy into fighting the “clean slate” initiative — legislation that would erase criminal charges, under certain conditions, after a period of time.
‘Conn. should ban trophy hunting the Big 5’
You read in a Feb. 28 column that the General Assembly’s Environment Committee was considering a bill to ban the import, sale and possession of African elephants, lions, leopards, black rhinoceros, white rhinoceros and giraffes. It’s called the Connecticut Big 5 African Trophies Act — HB 5014.
I was surprised to learn that this is a Connecticut issue. From 2005 to 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued 59 trophy hunting permits for state residents to hunt and kill leopards, six permits to hunt and kill elephants, and residents killed and imported 39 lions and one giraffe.
Judging from comments and emails in response to my column, people care.
Good news: The Environment Committee voted 21 to 7 (with two absent) to approve the bill and file it with the Legislative Commissioner’s Office, which means it could come to the floor for a vote. Though the General Assembly is shut on Friday because of the coronavirus, make a note to urge your state representative and state senator to bring the bill to a vote and support it.
‘Suicide: The dark side of 8th-grade bullying’
In a June 21 column, you read about Debbie Berman, a Brookfield mother who worked hard for an update of the state’s 2003 antibullying law for schools. She has a framed copy of the 2011 result.
Debbie’s passion is fueled by the suicide of her 14-year-old daughter Alexa in 2008. Persistent bullying by three girls in eighth grade who “shunned, demeaned” and made her feel worthless; she was depressed. Her family brought her for counseling.
The updated law required training of teachers and others in schools on the signs of bullying, but more could be done, Debbie said.
Last June the House and Senate passed “an act concerning school climates” that goes beyond the recognizing and reporting of bullying to make schools safer and welcoming for all students. The bill called for a state School Climate Collaborative through the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.
Debbie, who created a program called She Mattered that she presents to classes and groups, was appointed to the collaborative. She was thrilled.
“It will allow me to make the contribution in raising awareness and helping students who are at-risk for suicide,” she told me. “It is a state-wide legislative initiative and there can be no resistance.”
‘Oxford wife-killer dies in prison, but pain remains’
In my Feb. 1, 2019, column you read about the mixed feelings Merry and Doug Jackson had when they learned their daughter’s killer, their former son-in-law, died in prison.
Scott Gellatly pleaded guilty to shooting to death Lori Jackson Gellatly on May 7, 2014 in the kitchen of her parents’ home. He shot and severely injured Merry; the 18-month-old twins sleeping upstairs were unharmed.
Scott was doing his 45year-sentence at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional
Institute in Suffield when he was found dead in his cell on Dec. 21, 2018.
“One thing, you feel bad, in a way, it was a human life,” Doug said recalling of hearing the news. “But in another way, we felt relief.”
The Chief Medical Examiner’s office ruled Scott’s death a suicide by “acute intoxication.” The toxicology report showed an antihistamine and an antidepressant in his system.
But how did he obtain the means to become acutely intoxicated? More than a year later, we still don’t know. The state Department of Corrections has not released its report. A spokesman did not respond Thursday to my inquiry.
‘Attention tourists: Connecticut is friendly again’
Where would an update be without returning to one of our favorite issues — some called it a mission — of last year? Yes, reopening the state’s Welcome Centers on the interstates became a cause that many of you embraced.
The restrooms in the “unwelcome” centers had been closed from 3:30 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. since October 2014 to save money. On July 1, Gov. Ned Lamont reopened the centers around the clock and visitors no longer had to resort to porta-potties.
Right now the tourist centers within the Welcome Centers are closed for the season; I checked to make sure they would be re-opening.
“We hope to re-open this May,” said Rosemary Bova, the Tourism Industry Outreach Manager whose duties include managing the Connecticut Welcome Center Program. She will be looking to hire 18 seasonal employees, three at each of the tourism centers.
Let’s hope the coronavirus abates well before Memorial Day and tourists, as well as all of us, feel free to move about again.
Jacqueline Smith’s column appears Fridays in Hearst Connecticut Media daily newspapers. It is soley her opinion. She is also the editorial page editor of The News-Times in Danbury and The Norwalk Hour. Let her know what you think: email jsmith@hearstmediact.com.