Woman in botched break-in found dead
NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (AP) - March 31, 2008 Leslie Williams, 31, told police that he entered the unlocked
home Sunday morning looking for money and a car, but that when two
women inside saw his face, he had no choice but to shoot them,
according to an arrest warrant.
Carol Larese, 65, was seriously wounded while her visiting
friend, MaryEllen Welsh, 61, was abducted.
According to the arrest warrant, Larese offered Williams $20 and
Welsh gave him her car key, but Williams ordered the two into the
basement and shot Larese. The warrant does not address the shooting
of Welsh.
Larese told police she pretended to be dead, then stayed in her
basement for an hour to make sure the intruder had left. She went
to a neighbor's home across the street for help.
"She just told me she was shot," Teresa Diters said. "She was
all full of blood from head to toe. I was amazed."
Police said they arrested Williams when he crashed Welsh's car
about 25 miles away in Watertown after a police chase later on
Sunday.
Welsh's body was found in a wooded area of Bristol early Monday,
Sgt. Darren Pearson said.
Williams appeared in court Monday but did not enter a plea to
charges of criminal attempt to commit murder, robbery, kidnapping
with a firearm and other crimes related to the attack on Larese. A
judge set bail at $5 million.
Prosecutors said they were preparing to file more serious
charges connected with Welsh's death but did not know when that
might happen.
Williams' attorney, public defender Todd A. Edgington, said he
expected the new charges within the next day or two.
"This stuff is rolling in faster than I can keep up," he said.
Edgington said he asked to have Williams placed in protective
custody in prison because he is concerned other inmates might blame
him if state officials crack down the way they did after two
parolees were charged in a deadly July home invasion in Cheshire.
The case led to a temporary ban on parole for all offenders.
Williams was living at two shelters in Hartford after he was
released March 4 from the medium-security Osborne Correctional
Institution in Somers after serving eight years in prison,
authorities said.
Police in Waterbury, where Williams lived before he went to
prison, said he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 5-year-old
girl he knew in 1998.
He was denied parole in March 2006.
Welsh, a nurse, was battling cancer in the past year, but her
friends had helped take care of her, said neighbor Albert Carrier.
"She was a very, very good person, beautiful person to be
neighbors with," Carrier said. "She was like part of my family."
---
Associated Press writers Stephanie Reitz and Susan Haigh in
Hartford and John Christoffersen in New Haven contributed to this
report.