People grapple with a senseless loss at murder sentencing

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

May 4—When former Windsor Locks resident William W. Leverett stabbed a stranger to death on a Simsbury Greenway trail in 2014, he took away a woman, Melissa Millan, whom a judge described Tuesday as "the glue that held the family together."

Judge David P. Gold made that comment in Hartford Superior Court as he struggled to find the words to address a senseless act of violence that has caused ripples of harm affecting everyone from the insurance executive's children to anybody who might consider taking a nighttime jog in Simsbury.

The sentence Gold imposed on the 30-year-old Leverett — 35 years in prison, followed by seven years' special parole — was never in doubt. Both sides had agreed on it when Leverett pleaded guilty to the murder in early March.

MURDER

KILLER: William W. Leverett, now 30, formerly of Windsor Locks

VICTIM: Melissa J. Millan, 54, of Simsbury, a senior vice president of MassMutual

WHERE AND WHEN: Evening of Nov. 20, 2014 on a Simsbury Greenway path

SENTENCE: 35 years in prison, followed by seven years' special parole

But Tuesday's sentencing was a chance for Millan's family members to describe their loss — and for officials to try to make some sense of what happened.

Prosecutor Vicki Melchiorre said Leverett has been diagnosed with a mild autism, which she said doesn't excuse what he did but may help explain it. She said people with mild autism can be "immature in social interactions," adding that Leverett has "limited ability to regulate his emotions."

In weighing the case, the prosecutor said, she had to balance the "random, brutal murder" with the fact that Leverett confessed to a crime that otherwise would have gone unsolved.

Leverett, who has a 2011 conviction in Colorado for a sexual assault on a child, walked into the Simsbury police station on the night of Sept. 19, 2018 and confessed in an interview lasting more than four hours.

Public defender Claud E. Chong attributed the confession to Leverett's discovery of religious faith.

But the prosecutor expressed doubts about some aspects of the story Leverett told that night. She said he took a kitchen knife he claimed to have bought for his grandmother when he got out of his car, wearing gloves, to approach Millan on the jogging trail on the night of Nov. 20, 2014, having already concluded she would probably reject him.

Melissa Millan's brother, Matthew Millan, told the judge that Melissa was a "devoted and loving mother," who had "a beautiful smile and a hearty laugh."

She had two children, who were 12 and 15 when their mother died at age 54, and Matthew said "their childhood was torn away." He said the murder threw the family into "triage and survival mode."

Millan's children didn't attend the sentencing but wrote detailed letters that were read aloud.

"I am afraid of being alone outside at night," Millan's son, Zachary "Zeke" Hodkin, wrote in his letter.

"Hers was the shoulder I would cry on, and hers is the wisdom I want in my life," he said of his mother.

Millan's daughter, Victoria "Tori" Hodkin, recalled a mother who would somehow make reindeer hoof prints appear on the roof — and who would go into a pet store to buy pet food and come out with a hamster.

Acknowledging bias, Tori said she thought her mother was the best of her three soccer coaches "because she was kind."

Tori said several times in the letter that she hated herself over some of the "what ifs" and "might have beens" surrounding her mother's death.

The judge gently took exception to that, saying, "There is one person and one person only who is responsible for your mother's death, and that is William Leverett."

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