Name: During decades in prison on a murder conviction, Wilfredo Perez turned his life around; he could now could be freed under a new federal law
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During decades in prison on a murder conviction, Wilfredo Perez turned his life around; he could now could be freed under a new federal law

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AdvertisementBy Hartford CourantFeb 15, 2021 at 6:00 amA quarter century ago, drug violence was exploding. The government’s response was Draconian punishment. Wilfredo Perez, who was selling kilograms of cocaine from an auto repair shop on Hartford’s south side, became an example of how criminal justice was dispensed.His case now illustrates how attitudes toward crime and punishment have changed.AdvertisementAt the peak of drug violence in the middle 1990s, a gangster named Teddy Casiano kidnapped a Perez dealer and was stealing Perez’s drugs. Pressed by his associates, Perez “green-lighted” a hit man. The assassin zipped across the busy intersection at New Britain and Newfield avenues in Hartford — at noon, on a motorcycle — and pumped 15 shots into Casiano, who was waiting for the light in his Cadillac.The Perez prosecution played out over a decade. Federal prosecutors, instructed by Washington, pursued a death sentence, but a jury ultimately declined. Perez was sentenced to three life sentences — without the possibility of parole.AdvertisementPerez, 54, is back in court now, but in a different era characterized by different notions of how government should deal with crime. In a measure of how far the pendulum has swung, Perez — supported, remarkably, by two federal prosecutors who once pursued his execution and a juror who convicted him — is trying to win compassionate release from prison under the 2018 First Step Act, a prison release program that was one of the rare programs on which former President Donald Trump and Congressional Democrats agreed.The purpose of the bipartisan law is to identify convicts sentenced to exceptionally long — and in retrospect, perhaps unjust — sentences, who demonstrate through rehabilitative and other prison programs that they are unlikely to reoffend. In Connecticut, first step release has been pursued notably by prisoners who, like Perez, were given long sentences as the government struggled with drug gang violence in the 1990s that made gun fights part of life in some parts of Hartford and Bridgeport.The case is before U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton, who said at the conclusion of a hearing last week she will issue a written decision on release in the future.Perez and his federal public defender are arguing, among other things, that his sentences — for drug dealing and murder — are so harsh they are out of the mainstream. Public defender Kelly Barrett contends that Perez was sentenced to slightly less than 22 years in prison for his drug crimes alone, while the average federal sentence for murder is now about 20 years.Perez got three consecutive life sentences for three separate offenses associated with a single murder, even though he didn’t pull the trigger: murder for hire, interstate travel to hire a New York hit man and murder in furtherance of his drug operation. He got another, 10 years — consecutive to the three life sentences — for causing death with a gun in a crime of violence.Perez was sentenced for drug crimes shortly after the murder, at the “very height of Draconian prison sentences in this country,” Barrett said during a hearing on Perez’s application for release. “The era that this case came in was the height of the get tough era against crime.”There is now research, Barrett said, suggesting that length of a sentence has no deterrent effect on crime.The evidence suggests and Perez claims that he initially opposed the murder, but relented under pressure from his associates — most of whom got far shorter sentences. Casiano, who had just been released from prison for an armored car robbery and was was head of the Savage Nomads gang, had been a childhood friend.AdvertisementOnly Perez, among the men charged in the murder, faced a death sentence.His brother Antonio was sentenced to life, but died in prison in 2010 when another inmate stabbed him in the neck with a pair of scissors during an argument. Santiago Feliciano, who traveled to New York to recruit the hit man, ultimately served about five years. Ollie Berrios, who was kidnapped by Casiano and who helped hire the hit man, cooperated with the government and was not prosecuted. Mario Lopez, who drove the motorcycle, cooperated and was sentenced to only five years. Hit man Fausto Gonzalez was charged with multiple murders and is serving a life sentence.The U.S. Attorney’s office is opposed to early release.Federal prosecutor Patrick Doherty said it makes no difference under the law whether Perez pulled the trigger. And he said the severe sentence promotes respect for the law.“He was the leader,” Doherty said. “This wasn’t the underlings taking over. He was the boss. He didn’t pull the trigger, but he was behind it. This was calculated. They decided Teddy Casiano had to go. He was bad for business. It was a business decision in the cocaine trade.”Perhaps Perez’s most unexpected support for early release comes from former assistant U.S. attorney David A. Ring, who said Perez repeatedly rebuffed demands by associates to kill Casiano for his ongoing efforts to disrupt their drug business. Ring said Perez finally relented and “green-lighted” the murder after Casiano kidnapped Berrios. Ring also outlined a prison accomplishments by Perez that he said suggest efforts at atonement.Advertisement“We do not intend to suggest that Wilfredo’s role in the murder was trivial or inconsequential,” Ring and fellow prosecutor Shawn Chen wrote in the letter. “However, the evidence presented at trial showed that Wilfredo was not a moving force behind the murder. Without the drive and determination of others, the murder would not have happened. Accordingly, we believe that a life sentence for Wilfredo is excessive and not commensurate with the role he played in the crime.”In a separate letter, one of the Perez’s jurors told Arterton she felt unfairly restricted by the rules governing verdicts in death penalty cases that limited the jury to choosing between execution and life in prison.“I know we were given only two options by the government (life in prison with no chance or parole or death), and I was relieved that we did not give him the death penalty, but I now wonder if we might have been able to request a sentence less harsh,” the juror wrote.Perez’s substantial prison record is also part of his attempt to win release.Inmates are required to participate in only two rehabilitative programs, Barrett said. She said Perez has competed 40 and is running short of new options.He obtained an electronics technician certification after completing one program and since then has saved the medium security prison at Otisville, N.Y., where he is incarcerated, thousands of dollars by repairing televisions, microwave ovens and kitchen equipment.AdvertisementBarrett said he saved the federal Bureau of Prisons thousands more when the regional director asked — and he agreed — to travel to the prison in Danbury to repair floor buffers.Usually, prisoners serving life sentences are moved regularly among high security institutions. In Perez’s case, wardens at Otisville have repeatedly been granted exceptions allowing him to remain in the lower security facility, where he has been given his own electronics repair area.In 2008, the Bureau of Prisons said Perez saved Otisville another $7,000 when he agreed to sand and refinish the gymnasium floor.DailyWe're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. &gt; Both prison staff and other inmates told Arterton of Perez’s success at “mentoring” other inmates. One of those inmates, Eric Snead, testified at a hearing on Perez’s release by a video connection with the court. He was sitting in the back of a UPS delivery truck, which he now drives for a living.“I did eight and one half years at Otisville,” Snead said. “I was angry. I was hell bent on coming out and committing crimes. If it wasn’t for Will, I wouldn’t be here today, doing what I’m doing.”Perez has been given only two disciplinary tickets in prison — an usually low number — one of which was for fighting with another inmate. In a letter to the court, the inmate said he was in a bad mood and decided to sucker punch Perez. The inmate said Perez’s involvement in the fight was simply trying to defend himself.AdvertisementPerez’s son Christian, who was hospitalized for abuse by his mother as a young child and raised by Perez’s parents, said his father has called or emailed him almost daily over the last quarter century. He is enrolled in college and works at UConn Health.“If it wasn’t for my father, I wouldn’t be in the position I am in today,” he said.If he is released, Perez said he hopes to live with his sister and care for his parents“I’m sorry for everything I’ve done, and I take full responsibility,” Perez said at a hearing on his release, through a video connection from prison. “All I try to do is help every person in here because it is the only way for me to pay for my crime. I try every single day to be better.” Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Hartford CourantFeb 15, 2021 at 6:00 amA quarter century ago, drug violence was exploding. The government’s response was Draconian punishment. Wilfredo Perez, who was selling kilograms of cocaine from an auto repair shop on Hartford’s south side, became an example of how criminal justice was dispensed.His case now illustrates how attitudes toward crime and punishment have changed.AdvertisementAt the peak of drug violence in the middle 1990s, a gangster named Teddy Casiano kidnapped a Perez dealer and was stealing Perez’s drugs. Pressed by his associates, Perez...

During decades in prison on a murder conviction, Wilfredo Perez turned his life around; he could now could be freed under a new federal law

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