Ex-Windsor Locks man gets 18 months for gun he used in shootout

Alex Wood, Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn.
·3 min read

Oct. 11—A man who has lived in Windsor Locks and plans to return when he completes his prison time was sentenced Friday to 18 months in federal prison for possessing a handgun with an obliterated serial number during a gunfight in Hartford that almost killed him on Sept. 9, 2020.

The sentence, imposed on William Tisdol, 22, most recently of Hartford, by Judge Janet Bond Arterton in U.S. District Court in New Haven, is to run consecutive to a six-month prison term that another federal judge gave him last month for involvement in an aggressive, large-scale retail theft ring.

Tisdol is also facing three cases in Hartford Superior Court, including one in which he is charged with kidnapping and robbing a man at gunpoint on May 8, 2020. The man who accused Tisdol of those crimes told police that he purposefully crashed his car at the intersection of Sigourney Street and Albany Avenue in Hartford, then wrestled the gun away from the robber.

Tisdol acknowledged having tried to buy marijuana from the complainant, whose name he knew, but said the complainant got upset when he called off the plan, brandished a gun, and crashed the car, according to an affidavit by Hartford police Officer Michael Fallon.

The two other state cases Tisdol is facing also involve gun possession, online court records show.

GUN SENTENCE

DEFENDANT: WILLIAM TISDOL, 22, OF HARTFORD, WHO HAS LIVED IN WINDSOR LOCKS AND PLANS TO RETURN THERE WHEN HE IS RELEASED FROM PRISON

CRIME: POSSESSING A HANDGUN WITH AN OBLITERATED SERIAL NUMBER

SENTENCE: 18 MONTHS IN PRISON, TO RUN CONSECUTIVE TO THE SIX MONTHS HE RECEIVED FOR INVOLVEMENT IN A LARGE-SCALE RETAIL THEFT RING

In 2019, a Hartford Superior Court jury acquitted Tisdol of a robbery and shooting in Hartford. A prosecutor subsequently dropped charges against him in another robbery case.

Tisdol's lawyer in his federal cases, W. Theodore Koch III, wrote in a sentencing memorandum that he understands based on a conversation with Richard Cramer, who represents Tisdol in the state cases, that a state prosecutor is "struggling" with the strength of those cases.

"Therefore, without knowing the future, it appears likely that William may not have to serve a particularly long sentence on any of his cases," Koch wrote.

But Koch wrote in a sentencing memo in the retail theft case that the past year, which Tisdol has spent in state custody, "might not count toward any federal sentence." Tisdol is currently an inmate at the Cheshire Correctional Institution, online records show.

Koch wrote that Tisdol had just dropped off his twin baby daughters at his grandmother's house in Hartford when another car drove by and someone leaned out the window and opened fire.

"William was shot all over his body; his child's mother was shot as well, though not nearly as badly," the defense lawyer wrote. "As the shooters drove away, William staggered to the house. He wanted to get to his children."

The people who tried to murder Tisdol haven't been apprehended, according to the defense lawyer.

Tisdol returned fire, prosecutor Brendan Keefe wrote in his sentencing memo.

"The dangerousness of this daytime shootout on city streets cannot be overstated," the prosecutor wrote, arguing that Tisdol should get a two-year prison term, the maximum recommended by federal sentencing guidelines.

Tisdol plans to live with his mother in Windsor Locks when he is released from prison, according to a plan submitted by the defense lawyer.

He blamed Tisdol's troubles in life to a large extent on the absence of his father, who was serving a 10-year federal drug sentence much of the time he was growing up.

Koch argued that a long prison term could cause that pattern to repeat with respect to Tisdol's three daughters, all toddlers. He cited research indicating that girls are seven times more likely to become pregnant as teenagers if their father is absent.

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