Man gets 18 years for killing Windsor teen, wounding 2 others

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

Jan. 13—A Hartford man was sentenced this week to 18 years in prison for fatally shooting a Windsor teenager in Hartford in April 2019 and shooting but not killing two other victims in an incident the month before, court records show.

SHOOTINGS

DEFENDANT: Isaiah Benitez, 26, of Hartford.

CONVICTIONS: First-degree manslaughter with a firearm in fatal shooting of Felipe Lopez, 16, of Windsor on April 24, 2019; two counts of first-degree assault in non-fatal shootings of two people in Hartford on March 17, 2019.

SENTENCE: 18 years in prison, followed by 22 years of special parole.

Isaiah Benitez, 26, pleaded guilty in October to first-degree manslaughter with a firearm in the killing of Felipe Lopez on Sigourney Street in Hartford before 1 a.m. April 24, 2019, two days before Lopez's 17th birthday.

Benitez originally was charged with murder in the case.

In the plea bargain, Benitez was also convicted of two counts of first-degree assault in the non-fatal shootings of two people as they slowly drove over a speed bump on Baltimore Street in Hartford on March 17, 2019.

Benitez, who confessed to police that he had shot Lopez when he turned himself in to face other charges two days after the killing, admitted in the plea bargain that he was guilty of first-degree manslaughter. But he entered his pleas to the Baltimore Street shootings under the Alford Doctrine, meaning that he didn't admit guilt but acknowledged that the prosecution had enough evidence for a conviction at trial.

Under the sentence, Lopez will be on strict special parole for 22 years after he completes the 18-year prison term.

He has been in jail, unable to post high bond, since his April 2019 arrest, and that time will be credited against his sentence.

But the sentence could keep him under state supervision — prison or parole — for the next 36 years, until he is in his early 60s.

After Lopez was shot, he sped north on Sigourney Street, swerving from one side of the road to the other, before running a red light at the Albany Avenue intersection, a witness told police. Lopez's car came to rest outside an Albany Avenue church, where police found him unconscious in the driver's seat, with a gunshot wound to his chest.

An ambulance took him to St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead just over half an hour after police received the shooting report.

Police say they found a small, clear plastic bag containing a substance consistent with marijuana on the passenger-side floor of his car. They found no guns in the car.

After Benitez turned himself in two days later to face charges in another case, he told police he had texted someone to buy a "dime," or $10 worth of marijuana, at a Sigourney Street address, according to an affidavit by Hartford police Detectives Michael Heselton and Frank Verrengia.

When the person arrived, Benitez said, he approached the car's passenger-side window, which was rolled down, and told the boy in the driver's seat that he was there to buy weed, the detectives reported. Benitez said the boy grabbed his left arm, at which point, Benitez said, he pulled a gun from his waistband with his right hand and fired two shots at the boy, according to the detectives.

During Benitez's first court appearance in the homicide case, Lopez's father, brother, and two other men charged at him but were restrained by judicial marshals, who rushed Benitez out of the courtroom.

The marshals handcuffed Lopez's father, Juan Lopez, who sat on a bench, hunched over and wailing, before being led out of the courtroom.

"He killed my son, he killed my son," Juan Lopez repeated through audible sobs. "He was just a boy. He didn't do nothing to nobody. Oh my son, I love you."

For updates on Glastonbury, and recent crime and courts coverage in North-Central Connecticut, follow Alex Wood on Twitter: @AlexWoodJI1, Facebook: Alex Wood, and Instagram: @AlexWoodJI.