Teens plead not guilty to burning Shakespeare theater
Three Stratford teenagers accused of setting fires on a whim in four communities pleaded not guilty Tuesday to inarguably the most spectacular one: the blaze that burned the American Shakespeare Theater to the ground.
“Not guilty,” 18-year-olds Christopher Sakowicz and Vincent Keller and 17-yearold Caleb Caraballo answered separately as they stood before state Superior Court Judge Earl Richards in Bridgeport answering to arson, burglary and reckless endangerment charges.
They each asked for jury trials. The case was continued to May 23.
“We have reached the point where all the warrants have been served and we now have a clear view of the allegations,” Keller’s lawyer, Frank Riccio II, said later. “We will evaluate the evidence and continue to follow the process in court.”
But Caraballo’s lawyer, Matthew Maddox, said he is still questioning his client’s role in the crimes.
“There is still a great deal of discovery that has to be completed,” Maddox said.
Sakowicz’s lawyer, Public Defender Joseph Bruckmann, declined comment.
In addition to the Jan. 13 fire that destroyed the American Shakespeare Theater in Stratford, the three teens are charged with the Jan. 15 fire in a vacant building at the Southbury Training School, the Feb. 8 fire in a vacant house on Richards Place in West Haven, the Feb. 17 fire at the former Bilco Co. in West Haven, the March 9 fire at Good Earth Tree Care on Longbrook Avenue in Stratford that destroyed a truck and the March 24 fire that damaged construction trailers at Silver Sands State Park in Milford.
A fourth teen has also been charged in connection with at least some of the fires but he is being treated as a juvenile and has not been identified publicly.
Following the theater fire, police said the teens posted a video admitting they set the fire on SnapChat that was circulated around Bunnell High School in Stratford, where both Sakowicz and Keller are seniors.
Police said Sakowicz and Keller later admitted to setting the fires.
“During the interview, Christopher (Sakowicz) became very animated and excited talking about fire and different patterns fires make in various settings,” police said.
Police said Sakowicz told them that the teens had broken into the theater basement through an unlocked rear door and that he had lit the fire using gasoline he had brought with him. On the way out of the burning theater, Sakowicz told police he had grabbed a security alarm panel as a souvenir.
Sakowitz and Keller later rode their bicycles to the theater site to watch it burn, police said.