7-24-2008 Connecticut:Coventry man accused of killing girlfriend
NEWTOWN -- A Coventry man accused of murdering his pregnant girlfriend hanged himself Wednesday at the Garner Correctional Institution, authorities said.
Officials with the state Department of Corrections said a cellmate informed staff around 4:30 a.m. that Alfredo Ferrer, 43, had hanged himself. He was found with a bedsheet tied around his neck, with the other end of the sheet secured to the cell door at the high security prison on Nunnawauk Road.
Staff members attempted to revive Ferrer, who was transported to Danbury Hospital and pronounced dead at approximately 5:30 a.m., officials said.
Ferrer was arrested April 14 after a standoff with police and was charged with murder for allegedly shooting his live-in girlfriend, Amanda Realie, 27, in their apartment. The woman died several days later.
Investigators said Ferrer told authorities he and Realie were fighting over her heroin use and his history as a sex offender when he accidentally shot her in the face.
When officers arrived on the scene, they found a blood-spattered Ferrer in the parking lot of a nearby restaurant. He was holding a gun and his 2-year-old son and threatening to kill himself.
Brain Garnett, a spokesman for the DOC, declined to comment Wednesday on whether Ferrer was on a suicide watch or had any mental health issues. He noted, however, that Garner "is our designated facility for adult male offenders with significant mental health needs."
He added that the corrections department has enhanced its suicide prevention protocol in recent years and it has "proven to be very effective." Staff members are trained, and cell checks are conducted every 30 minutes.
"Suicide has always been an issue in correctional settings," Garnett said, adding that the last suicide to occur at Garner was in May.
State Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, chairman of the legislature's Judiciary Committee, said if Ferrer was in Garner while his case was pending he likely had a "high mental health score."
He added that the facility is understaffed and stretched thin when it comes to dealing with mentally ill inmates.
"We don't have enough facilities for people with mental illness," he said.
Lawlor said while Ferrer belonged in the high-security prison, there are nonviolent offenders -- such as homeless men charged with trespassing or urinating in public -- who would be better served by community-based health services such as halfway homes and treatment facilities.
"This is just one example of what happens when the staff is overwhelmed with mentally ill inmates," he said. "They just don't have the resources they need to manage this population."
Garnett said an intensive investigation into Ferrer's death has already been launched and, as with any suicide in a correctional facility, officials will determine "if there is anything we could have done better."
"We take great efforts in preventing inmates from harming themselves," he said.
Ferrer was being held on a $2 million bond. In addition to murder, he was charged with assault on a pregnant woman, and two counts of risk of injury to a child. His next court appearance was scheduled for Friday.
Court officials said Ferrer was convicted in the 1980s of sexually assaulting a minor, then escaped from prison in 1991 and remained a fugitive until he was arrested for marijuana possession in New York in 2002.
Ferrer's death comes a month after a ruling in Rockville Superior Court that there was enough evidence to put him on trial in the murder case.
The State's Attorney in charge of the case, Matt Gedansky, could not be reached for comment. ..News Source.. by Dirk Perrefort, Staff Writer
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