Judge rejects Peeler early release bid

NEW HAVEN — A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a request for an early release for former Bridgeport drug kingpin Adrian Peeler — convicted of conspiring to kill a woman and her young son — following impassioned pleas to keep him behind bars by the victims’ family.

Twenty years after he was last in court, sentenced to 25 years for the deaths of Karen Clarke and her 8-year-old son, Leroy “B.J.” Brown, and another 35 years in federal court for his drug operation, Peeler stood before U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton and asked to be released for compassionate reasons.

But while Arterton lauded Peeler for making progress while in prison, she said, “Shockingly missing was any expression of remorse or apology to the families of Miss Clarke and B.J. He didn’t turn around to face them and simply say ‘I’m sorry.’”

The judge did reduce Peeler’s federal drug sentence to 15 years to reflect current sentencing guidelines but added that it will run consecutively to any state sentence he has remaining.

Clarke and B.J. were found shot to death in their East Side home on Jan. 7, 1999 just days before they were scheduled to testify in the trial of a major city drug dealer, Russell Peeler Jr.

Russell Peeler was convicted of ordering the murders of Clarke and Brown in state Superior Court. His initial death sentence was later converted to life in prison without the possibility of release after the death sentence was abolished in the state.

Adrian Peeler, who was identified by an eyewitness as the shooter, was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder by a jury in Waterbury and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

He would be scheduled to be released next April, according to court documents, but is also being held in prison on a consecutive 35-year federal sentence for drug dealing.