Middletown, Conn. – According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office press release on the 18th, a 38-year-old Romanian man admitted his involvement in a home invasion scheme where he injected two people with a fake deadly virus and demanded millions for the antidote. Stefan Alexandru Barabas, along with accomplices Emanuel Nicolescu and Alexandru Lucian Nicolescu, wore masks and used knives and Airsoft guns to break into a home in South Kent, Connecticut. All three men have faced various charges related to the bizarre incident.
According to the Department of Justice, the intruders bound and blindfolded the victims before injecting them with a substance they claimed was a lethal virus. They demanded $8.5 million as ransom for the antidote, threatening the victims with death. When the victims were unable to meet their demands, the intruders sedated them with sleeping pills and fled in a stolen Jeep Cherokee. The abandoned vehicle was later found in New Rochelle, New York.
During the investigation, an accordion case washed up on the shore of Jamaica Bay, containing evidence related to the home invasion. Inside the case were a stun gun, a knife, an Airsoft gun, syringes, sleeping pills, and other items. It was discovered that Kennedy, who provided transportation for the perpetrators, had connections to Emmanuel Nicolescu, who had previously worked for one of the victims.
The breakthrough in the case came when investigators connected Kennedy’s car, registered in Pennsylvania, to the home invasion using partial license plate information. Cellphone records placed Emmanuel Nicolescu at the location where the stolen Jeep was abandoned, and his DNA was matched to DNA found in the vehicle. Witnesses also identified a knife from the accordion case as a gift given to Emmanuel Nicolescu by his father-in-law, strengthening the connections between the suspects.
Stefan Alexandru Barabas pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by extortion, with a possible maximum prison sentence of 20 years. As part of a binding plea agreement, Barabas has agreed to a sentence between 72 and 84 months. His accomplices, Emanuel Nicolescu and Alexandru Nicolescu, have already pleaded guilty and received sentences of 240 months and 121 months, respectively. Meanwhile, Michael N. Kennedy, the driver and accomplice to the crime, was sentenced to 48 months.
The 2007 home invasion, which involved injecting the victims with a fake virus and demanding millions for the antidote, was an elaborate scheme that left the small Connecticut community in shock. The guilty pleas from the perpetrators provide closure to the victims and the community affected by this bizarre crime.