Tragic Leniency? Murder Suspect Had Been Given Legal Break
By ELIZABETH HAMILTON, MATT BURGARD And TINA A. BROWN Courant Staff Writers January 20 2006
Shortly before Steven Debow's scheduled deployment to Afghanistan, the young man stood in a Hartford courtroom, flanked by two superiors from the National Guard, and answered to a criminal charge of carrying a gun without a permit.The prosecutor, Jeffrey Lee, was known for taking a hard line on cases involving guns. But Lee told the judge he was willing to set the charge aside to give the 20-year-old soldier the opportunity to serve his country."I distinguish between people who don't want to do anything for their country and their city, and people that do," Lee told Judge Wendy Susco during the Dec. 1 court hearing. "While I could have ... put him in prison for a period of time, I chose not to."A month later, on Jan. 4, a formal decision not to pursue the charge was recorded in Superior Court in Hartford after the judge was told Debow was shipping out for training at Fort Bragg, N.C., and then on to Afghanistan, in three days."We'll keep our fingers crossed," Susco said.It was a leap of faith that landed almost immediately with a sickening thud.The next evening, authorities say, Debow went into a Hartford bodega and shot dead the young store owner, Elizabeth Morel, and an employee, Enrique Perez, after Morel refused to give him money. Morel's 15-month-old daughter, who was behind the counter at the time of the shooting, was unharmed.A short time earlier, Debow had attempted to hold up a store about a block away from Morel's bodega, but the store owner did not have any money, police sources said. Debow walked away, police said, but left his fingerprint behind on a Snapple bottle.Police believe Debow then walked a little farther down Garden Street and into the Elizabeth Grocery, on the corner of Garden and Nelson streets, and attempted to rob Morel, but didn't get any money there either."He got frustrated and shot the gun," a police source said Thursday.............
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2 comments:
Some one (investigative reporter) needs to dig MUCH deeper into DeBow's background while training at Ft Bragg... It may explain a lot of unknowns here. He is serving 40 years at McDougal in Suffield CT. He won't be getting out until his is 60 years old. He's 23 now. Someone should interview him for his side of the story. It might be something quite interesting... if not shocking...
say what you have to say. debow was convicted of murder. TWO INNOCENTS (in front of a baby i might add). so like i said, if you're going to blame THIS murder on the miltary you'd best just come right out and say it
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