Connecticut
Man kills dad, leaves organs outside body in one of Connecticut’s safest towns: ‘Tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions’
A man has been accused of murdering his father and leaving the victim’s organs outside his body in a sleepy Connecticut town. This was the town’s first murder in more than 20 years, and has been described by the suspect’s defence attorney as a “tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.”
On Saturday, August 3, authorities responded to a caller who claimed that he had hurt his father at a residence in Ridgefield. The suspect, 31-year-old Steven James Uricchio, was found by authorities outside the house, wearing a dark blue shirt with boxer shorts, his hands in the air, a police report obtained by the Hour said.
Uricchio appeared to have blood on his hands and was sweating. He was then instructed by cops to walk forward with his arms extended.
Authorities inspected Uricchio for weapons, and then went on to ask him about his dad, Marc Uricchio. “I murdered him,” said Uricchio, adding that he had killed him “really, really badly.”
‘This is a tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions’
Investigators entered the house to find blood drops on the stairs and on both sides of the wall. At the top of the stairs lay a fillet knife covered in blood. 83-year-old Marc lay on the floor in his bedroom, according to cops.
Marc was pronounced dead at the scene. Both his groin and abdomen were mutilated. Some of his internal organs were discovered outside his body.
Police Capt. Jeffrey Raines told the News-Times that this horrific incident was Ridgefield’s first murder since 2003. The killing “shakes the town up. This is a very safe community,” he said.
Uricchio told officers a few hours after being arrested that he had problems in his stomach because of a quarter of a bottle of Advil he had earlier taken. He was then taken to Danbury Hospital for evaluation, where he told doctors he had been prescribed a medication that he had not taken “in a month or two.” He also confessed that he regularly used cannabis.
After being discharged from the hospital, Uricchio was taken back to Ridgefield police headquarters on suicide watch. On Monday, August 5, he was arraigned in Danbury Superior Court. He seemed almost catatonic and was carried into the courtroom.
Uricchio reportedly slumped with his head on the defence table and was asked by the judge to stand up. A nearby officer had to pull him to his feet.
Uricchio’s defence lawyer Willie Dow claimed that the suspect had “significant mental health history.” Dow agreed with the prosecution’s request for mental health treatment and a competency evaluation. He also agreed that his client required continued suicide watch. The judge approved all of these.
“This is a tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions. It has devastated the family as well as my client,” Dow told News 12 Connecticut.
Uricchio is due back in court on September 4. He is at present being held on $1.5 million bail.
Connecticut
How a carjacking in Connecticut led back to a man known as the crypto ‘Godfather’ in California
On a leafy Connecticut road in the summer of 2024, would-be kidnappers pulled a couple from their Lamborghini SUV, beat them in broad daylight and threw them into a van, only to be arrested shortly thereafter as multiple witnesses, including a passing off-duty FBI agent, called police.
The investigation would lead police to some sensational findings.
The attack turned out to be linked to a $245 million Bitcoin heist the month before involving the couple’s son. And this week, a California cryptocurrency mogul who authorities say called himself “The Godfather” and had previously hired off-duty sheriff’s deputies to strongarm his enemies admitted to orchestrating the attempted abduction to get a piece of the son’s stolen loot.
The California man, 25-year-old Adam Iza, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery. Federal prosecutors are seeking a prison term of at least 14 years when he’s sentenced.
Iza’s lawyer, William Paetzold, didn’t immediately respond to Tuesday phone and email messages seeking comment.
The case is part of an increasing trend worldwide of cryptocurrency theft spilling over to violence.
Nightclub fight spawns kidnapping plot
A month before the abduction attempt, one of Iza’s alleged co-conspirators got into a beef with the couple’s son, Veer Chetal, at a Miami nightclub, according to an FBI affidavit. The man, James Schwab, then told an acquaintance to rob Chetal and his friends at their Miami rental home, authorities said. It’s not clear if the robbery happened.
Schwab’s lawyers didn’t immediately respond to phone messages seeking comment.
Then came the Bitcoin heist. A few weeks after the nightclub fight, Chetal and two other men hatched an elaborate online scheme that involved impersonating technical support staff for Google and a cryptocurrency exchange. They managed to steal 4,100 Bitcoins — worth about $245 million at the time — from a Washington, D.C., resident, according to court documents.
The trio lived large after the theft, spending millions of dollars on cars, clothing, jewelry, rental mansions and nightclub parties before being arrested, prosecutors said. Chetal pleaded guilty last November and awaits sentencing, while the two other men have pleaded not guilty.
Iza and Schwab, meanwhile, came up with the idea to take Chetal’s parents hostage in a bid to snatch some of his ill-gotten riches, the FBI said, citing information from informants. Schwab and Iza’s brother, Saif Faiq, also were charged in the kidnapping attempt and pleaded not guilty.
They recruited six other men to go to Connecticut, paying for their travel and lodging, authorities said. A week after the Bitcoin heist, the group surveilled Chetal’s parents hours before the kidnapping, according to court records.
Abduction quickly goes awry
Sushil and Radhika Chetal were driving in the Lamborghini on Aug. 25, 2024, near Danbury High School when they were rear-ended by a car. A white van then pulled in front of the SUV and several men surrounded them, police said.
The men pulled the Chetals out of the SUV and forced them into their van, beating Sushil Chetal with a baseball bat and dragging Radhika Chetal by her hair. The couple were bound with duct tape and the van drove off, according to court documents.
After witnesses called police, officers soon spotted the van and a chase ensued. The van eventually crashed and four of the men got out and fled on foot but were arrested shortly thereafter. The other two men were later found at a home the group had rented in a nearby town. The Chetals were taken to a hospital and released.
The six men, all from Florida, have pleaded guilty in connection with the kidnapping. Two have been sentenced to 11 years in prison and the others await sentencing.
How the ‘Godfather’ went from a Bel Air mansion to federal charges
Before Iza’s arrest in the Connecticut case, he was under investigation by federal authorities in California for extorting money and property from victims in Los Angeles and elsewhere, court records show. He was charged in that case a month after the kidnapping and later pleaded guilty.
Iza, also known as Ahmed Faiq, was living in a mansion in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, calling himself The Godfather while running a crypto trading company, Zort. While stealing millions of dollars and funneling it through shell companies, Iza spent freely on luxury cars and other extravagances, including cosmetic surgery to lengthen his legs, prosecutors said.
Beginning in August 2021, Iza paid around $100,000 a month for his personal protection to a private security firm founded by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy that also employed other deputies, prosecutors said.
Iza, authorities said, hired off-duty deputies to act as enforcers against people with whom he had personal and business disputes. He used the deputies to extort, intimidate, set people up for arrest and abuse the legal process, prosecutors said.
The deputies used law enforcement databases to generate information about Iza’s enemies and obtained search warrants under false pretenses, authorities said. On one occasion, two deputies held a victim at gunpoint inside Iza’s home, pressuring the victim to transfer $25,000 to Iza’s bank account, prosecutors said.
When he pleaded guilty in that case in January, Iza also admitted to stealing more than $37 million by fraudulently accessing the business manager accounts of Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook, and their lines of credit from 2020 to 2022. He awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to wire fraud, conspiracy against rights and tax evasion.
His attorney in California, Josef Sadat, declined to comment Tuesday.
Several deputies also were charged in the investigation.
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