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Connecticut boy, 10, sends emotional message to father’s Halloween killer during sentencing: ‘Taken from me too early’

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Connecticut boy, 10, sends emotional message to father’s Halloween killer during sentencing: ‘Taken from me too early’


A 10-year-old Connecticut boy heart-wrenchingly revealed that he didn’t have enough time with his late father, who was stabbed to death before they could go trick-or-treating on Halloween five years earlier.

Fernando “Chino” Rivera’s son, “Niko,” bravely delivered the powerful victim statement before his father’s killer, Terrence Johnson, was sentenced to 38 years in prison on Tuesday.

“I didn’t get enough time (with dad)…My dad deserved to stay. My dad was taken from me too early,” Niko said in a video played in the Superior Court in Milford, according to the Harford Courant.

Fernando “Chino” Rivera holds his son Niko in an undated photo. Rivera was fatally attacked in West Haven, Conn. in 2020. Facebook/FernandoRivera

Niko had been waiting for his father to come home so that the pair could celebrate their Halloween together in 2020, but Rivera never returned.

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The 35-year-old was at the corner of Elm Street and Washington Avenue in West Haven, Conn., when Johnson, then 18, stabbed him from behind.

Rivera, who was engaged to Niko’s mother Lindsee Baez, was seriously injured in the attack and died from a neck injury at Yale New Haven Hospital the next day, according to his obituary.

Niko, only being five, was told his father died of a “boo-boo.”

Johnson was arrested and charged with murder, according to court records viewed by The Post.

Fernando “Chino” Rivera died of neck injuries at Yale New Haven Hospital on Nov. 1, 2020. North Haven Funeral Home
Terrance Johnson pleaded guilty to the murder and sentenced to 38 years in prison.

He fleshed out a plea deal with prosecutors to reduce his sentence to between 30 and 45 years, Baez told the outlet.

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The boy recommended to the court that Johnson deserved to be booked in prison for a century, despite the killer getting under four decades.

“I wish he would go away and stay in jail for 100 years,” Niko said. “I want (dad) to know I miss him so much.”

Loved ones said Rivera’s greatest joy was “being a father and spending time with his son.”

Baez was hopeful her fiancé’s killer would spend the rest of his life in jail “in a perfect world,” but conceded to the sentencing being “a semblance of justice,” she told the court.

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“You stole a life, you stole dreams, and you stole love, and no sentence can ever undo the damage you caused,” she furiously told Johnson.

“At the end of my day, my son doesn’t have a dad,” Baez said.

Rivera and his fiancée Lindsee Baez were together for 17 years before his murder. Facebook/FernandoRivera

Rivera, a 6-foot, 350-pound man known for his tattoos, was remembered for his gentle soul, who became a stay-at-home dad after his son’s birth, affectionately being called “Papa Bear,” in the maternity ward, Baez said.

“He was truly my best friend,” she said, according to the outlet.

“We grew up together, from our teenage years into adulthood,” Baez recalled on her 17-year relationship with Rivera. “The road was bumpy along the way, but we never gave up on each other. We chose our family every single day, and that choice made him so happy.”

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Person reported missing found dead in Brookfield

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Person reported missing found dead in Brookfield


A person who was reported missing late Friday night in Brookfield has been found dead.

Police received a report of a missing person around 11 p.m. As officers were searching the area, they said they found an ATV off of the roadway and in the woods on Candlewood Shores Road.

According to investigators, the sole occupant of the ATV was found dead at the scene. The person’s identity has not yet been released.

The investigation is active and ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact Officer Brian Flanagan at (203) 740-4169.

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Newly released video shows Connecticut prison officers striking inmate before he died

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Newly released video shows Connecticut prison officers striking inmate before he died


HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut prison inmate J’Allen Jones was suffering a mental health crisis in 2018 when correctional officers struck him multiple times, stripped him naked, put a spit bag over his head and sprayed pepper spray at his face shortly before he died.

Video of the series of events was released Friday by a state judge in Hartford overseeing Jones’ family’s lawsuit against eight officers and a prison nurse, following a yearslong legal battle and after both sides agreed to certain redactions.

The Department of Correction had sought to keep it sealed since 2019, saying in part that its release could present security problems because it shows the physical layout of the prison and staffing patterns. But Jones’ family, the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut and local NAACP officials called for publicly releasing the video, saying transparency was needed in Jones’ death.

“The events in the video are as disturbing as the events in the video of George Floyd’s death,” Ron Murphy, a lawyer for Jones’ family, wrote in a court document, referring to the man killed by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. “But in some ways, the video of J’Allen’s death is worse.”

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Jones, 31, from Atlanta, was serving a 10-year sentence for robbery at Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of New Haven when he died on March 25, 2018. Correction officers had been trying to take him to a medical unit in the prison at the time to get treatment for his mental illness.

Handcuffed inmate appeared in crisis as officers struck him

Portions of the 52-minute video show Jones handcuffed behind his back — and later with his legs shackled — as officers hit his legs and torso with their knees and fists, after he refused a strip search. At one point, an officer pins him down on a bed with a knee on his back while others hold him down.

Jones — who was having a schizophrenic episode, according to court documents — is heard yelling at this point, much of it unintelligible. He repeatedly shouts, “In the blood of Jesus Christ!” At one point, he tells officers, “I command you … to uncuff me now!”

Officers, meanwhile, tell Jones numerous times to stop resisting and to calm down. One officer tells Jones they’re just trying to help him.

About 17 minutes into the video, Jones appears to start having trouble breathing after the spit bag was placed over his head and he was pepper sprayed. Nearly five minutes later, Jones appears to be unconscious as officers struggle to hold him up and put him in a wheelchair. At around the 24-minute mark, an officer requests a nurse to evaluate Jones.

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“Right now he’s just being dead weight, and I just want to make sure he’s OK,” the officer says, talking to the video camera held by another officer.

Minutes go by before life-saving measures are started

About 28 minutes into the video, a nurse starts performing CPR and an officer orders someone over the radio to call 911. An ambulance crew doesn’t arrive until more than 43 minutes into the video. Jones was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Hours after Jones’ death, the Department of Correction put out a brief statement saying that Jones had become “non-compliant and combative with staff and then became non-responsive.” It did not say anything about officers striking Jones but noted that there were no immediate indications that excessive force was used. It said life-saving measures were performed and he was brought to a hospital.

The medical examiner’s office determined that the cause of Jones’ death was “sudden death during struggle and restraint with chest compression and pepper spray exposure in person with hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.” It ruled his death a homicide, although that designation does not necessarily mean a crime was committed.

In January 2019, a state prosecutor investigating Jones’ death determined that no crimes were committed.

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An internal Correction Department investigation found that excessive force was not used. But the eight officers and nurse violated policy by not recognizing for more than seven minutes that Jones was in medical distress — although not intentionally, the investigation report said.

Punishment of one-day suspensions without pay were handed down to the nine staff members, Correction Department records show.

The correctional officers’ union did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

Family lawyer hopes video release spurs calls for reforms

Allen was Black, and his lawyer says eight of the nine defendants are white. One is Black. In court papers seeking release of the video, Murphy said it’s important that the public sees the footage and can consider “whether his race or schizophrenia played any role in how his cries for help and gasps for air were perceived and handled.”

“I hope everyone who chooses to watch the video does so with an open heart, remembering that J’Allen Jones was a father and a son and that his family grieves every day,” Murphy said in a statement Friday afternoon, adding that he hoped the video leads to prison system improvements.

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He added, “I found the video very difficult to watch as it depicts the painful death of another human being. So please take care of yourself while watching and if you experience overwhelming feelings, consider taking a break or reaching out to someone for support. Thank you.”

Responding to a series of questions from The Associated Press about the video and how officers dealt with Jones, the Correction Department’s interim commissioner Sharonda Carlos, said in a statement that the agency is continually focused on improving the services it offers to inmates experiencing mental health problems.

“Any loss of life in our facilities is a tragedy that we feel deeply, and our sympathy remains with Mr. Jones’ family and loved ones,” she said.

Carlos said she appointed a psychiatrist to lead the department’s inmate medical services in May, and the agency is rolling out major improvements to its mental health training for staff.

“Behind every individual in our care is a family hoping for their well-being, and we do not take that responsibility lightly,” she said.

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40 Years, Zero Accountability: The Union Deal That’s Been Emptying Connecticut’s Wallet

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40 Years, Zero Accountability: The Union Deal That’s Been Emptying Connecticut’s Wallet


Last week, Yankee Institute proposed the Expenditure Records and Information Notification Act, or ERIN’s Act, a reform requiring executive branch agencies to publish purchasing-card transactions in a centralized, searchable online […]



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