Enfield arsonist gets chance at rehab in Hartford stabbing
Aug. 17—A man convicted in two of a series of fires that terrorized Enfield's Hazardville section in 2014 and 2015 pleaded guilty last week to reduced charges in a stabbing and attempted car burglary in Hartford and was released to a rehabilitation program before sentencing.
STABBING DEAL
DEFENDANT: Davidson Izzo, 24, most recently of Hartford.
GUILTY PLEAS: Second-degree assault, attempted third-degree burglary, possession of burglar tools. Izzo also admitted violating probation conditions in an old Enfield arson case.
STATUS: Free on a promise to appear in court while awaiting sentencing, required to complete Youth Challenge drug rehabilitation program.
Davidson Izzo, 24, who most recently lived in Hartford, pleaded guilty in Hartford Superior Court to second-degree assault and attempted third-degree burglary in the incident, which occurred on May 26, 2021, behind a building on Chestnut Street, which runs off Albany Avenue in Hartford.
Izzo also pleaded guilty to possession of burglar tools in another Hartford car burglary and admitted violating probation conditions in one of the old arson cases.
Judge Kevin C. Doyle didn't immediately sentence Izzo. Instead, he released Izzo from jail on a promise to appear in court, with the condition that he complete the Youth Challenge program.
Izzo had been held on high bond for more than 14 months since his arrest immediately after the stabbing.
Izzo's biological mother died of a drug overdose a week after he was born, and he spent three weeks in the hospital as a drug-dependent baby, his adoptive father, James Izzo, said during a 2017 court hearing.
Izzo's case returns to court Sept. 8, but that doesn't necessarily mean he will be sentenced then. Judges often schedule hearings to check on defendants in rehabilitation programs.
Court records don't show an agreement as to Izzo's sentence, and neither his public defender, Dana H. Sanetti, nor prosecutor Danielle O'Connell could be reached for comment. But plea agreements that include participation in a rehabilitation program before sentencing often make the sentence contingent on the defendant's performance in the program.
In the Hartford stabbing, the victim's brother told police that the victim had notified him by telephone that someone was breaking into his car, according to a report by Hartford police Officer Christopher Casale. It goes on to recount the following:
The man said he went onto his back porch with his legally registered handgun and yelled at the would-be thief to stop and get on the ground. He said his brother walked toward the man to stand by him and make sure he didn't leave until police were called. At that point, he said, the thief got up, stabbed his brother, and jumped a fence.
Police found Izzo hiding on the front porch of a nearby building. Located near him was "a black folding knife, which had red viscous material on the blade," but Izzo denied that it was his, the officer reported.
In a subsequent electronically recorded interview with police, Izzo admitted that he had tried to break into a car at the Chestnut Street building. He said two men approached him, one with a gun and the other with a knife, and that he and the man with the knife got into a physical altercation, during which the man was stabbed.
The stabbing victim drove himself to St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, where a trauma surgeon later told police that the victim was stabbed in the stomach and was in stable condition a little more than three hours after the stabbing.
Izzo had several bags, or plastic sleeves of a substance believed to be heroin on him when he was arrested, Casale reported.
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