Suspect gets ultimatum in Bethel woman’s murder case
BRIDGEPORT — An Ohio man, awaiting trial in the death of a young Bethel woman near Bridgeport’s city’s boat ramp, was given an ultimatum Wednesday — plead guilty or go to trial.
As the Bethel family sat in the back of the courtroom, some members crying, state Superior Court Judge Joan Alexander told Brandon Roberts he will have to make that choice when he is brought back to the courtroom on Jan. 8.
The judge told Roberts, who is also accused of shooting another woman, that he will only get one plea deal offer but, softening her voice, the judge told the victim’s family it will not be the maximum for the crime as they requested. The details of the plea deal were not disclosed.
The 27yearold Roberts is charged with murder,
felony murder, firstdegree robbery and carrying a pistol without a permit for the Dec. 8 killing of 25yearold Emily Todd.
Todd, a therapist at a Danbury senior center, was found lying face down in the sand along the shore the next morning. Police said her mother later told detectives that Todd had met Roberts, who was staying with relatives at a Stratford hotel, on an online dating app.
On Dec. 14, police arrested Roberts at his father’s home in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and charged him with Todd’s murder.
While being questioned at the Shaker Heights police station, police said, Roberts confessed to Bridgeport Police Lt. Chris LaMaine that he had killed Todd and shot another woman near Washington Park a year earlier.
The second woman, who was 43 at the time, was taken to Bridgeport Hospital with a bullet wound in her right shoulder.
Roberts is charged with attempted murder and firstdegree assault in that case.