Trending
WARREN -- The 11th District Court of Appeals has upheld two convictions, one of which centered on the murder of an 88-year-old Warren woman.
An argument by defense counsel for Shamar Askew, 20, of Homewood Avenue, claimed Askew might have made his plea without knowing whether the trial judge granted or denied a motion to suppress statements that Askew made to law enforcement.
Askew was convicted for the murder of family matriarch Ruth Lewis, who was sitting in her wheelchair Feb. 28, 2021, in the living room of 3178 Starlite Drive when she was struck in the back by a bullet. She was visiting on a Sunday with family members planning her son's funeral. Her son had died of cardiac trouble days earlier.
The argument by Askew's lawyers was deemed to be without merit by the appellate judges.
The second appeal concerned the conviction and 54-month prison sentence handed down to Corey Hoffman, 24, of Southington, who pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular assault and failure to stop after an accident.
Hoffman's charges are connected to a Sept. 19, 2021, traffic crash in which a woman on a motorcycle was injured.
John B. Juhasz, attorney for Hoffman, argued the sentence was excessive for a "nonhomicide offense" and was disproportionate to the typical sentences for vehicular assault.
The 11th District judges, however, ruled the "appellant has not demonstrated that his sentence is so unusual as to be outside the mainstream of local judicial practice."