Connecticut
Woman accused of killing husband and hiding body pleads guilty to manslaughter
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A 76-year-old Connecticut woman who was accused of killing her husband, hiding his body for months and collecting his paychecks pleaded guilty to manslaughter Monday, a state prosecutor said.
Linda Kosuda-Bigazzi was arrested in February 2018 in the death of her husband, Dr. Pierluigi Bigazzi, a professor of laboratory science and pathology at UConn Health. The body of the 84-year-old man was found in the basement of the couple’s home in Burlington, Connecticut, when police came over for a wellness check.
The medical examiner said Dr. Bigazzi died of blunt trauma to the head. Investigators said they believe he died sometime in July 2017 and that UConn Health paychecks were deposited into the couple’s joint checking account from the time of his death until February 2018.
Prosecutors pursuing a murder case against Kosuda-Bigazzi claimed she left his body wrapped in plastic in their home for months while she continued to collect his salary.
Kosuda-Bigazzi had claimed self-defense in the killing.
Hartford State’s Attorney Sharmese Walcott said Monday that Kosuda-Bigazzi pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and first-degree larceny.
“This case has been pending for six years so we are thankful we were able to reach a resolution today,” Walcott said in a prepared release.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 28.
Kansas
Judge: Barring driver’s license changes doesn’t violate trans people’s rights
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas judge ruled Monday that the state isn’t violating transgender residents’ rights under the state constitution by refusing to change their driver’s licenses to reflect their gender identities.
District Judge Teresa Watson kept in place indefinitely an order she first issued in July 2023 to prevent the Kansas Department of Revenue from changing the listing for “sex” on transgender people’s driver’s licenses. Attorney General Kris Kobach, a conservative Republican, sued Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration to stop such changes in line with a 2023 law that ended legal recognition of transgender people’s identities.
Watson allowed transgender Kansas residents to intervene in Kobach’s lawsuit, and the American Civil Liberties Union argued on their behalf that the no-changes policy violated rights protected by the Kansas Constitution. The Kansas Supreme Court declared in 2019 that the state constitution grants a right to bodily autonomy, though the decision dealt with abortion rights, not LGBTQ+ rights.
Watson said invoking the right to bodily autonomy to require the state to change driver’s licenses would be “an unreasonable stretch.” She said Kansas residents do not have a fundamental right under the state constitution to “control what information is displayed on a state-issued driver’s license.”
“Information recorded on a driver’s license does not interfere with transgender persons’ ability to control their own bodies or assert bodily integrity or self-determination,” Watson wrote in her 31-page order, issued in Shawnee County, home to the state capital of Topeka.
Kelly supports LGBTQ+ rights. After she took office in 2019, her administration allowed transgender people to change their driver’s licenses and birth certificates to reflect their gender identities.
The Republican-controlled Legislature overrode her veto to enact the 2023 law, and transgender people can no longer change either identity document, thanks to Kobach’s efforts.
It’s not clear whether Kelly’s administration or transgender Kansas residents will appeal Watson’s ruling. D.C. Hiegert, an ACLU of Kansas LGBTQ+ legal fellow who is trans, predicted that Watson’s ruling will lead to transgender people being harassed and denied services.
“What possible reason can we articulate to deny our transgender population peace of mind?” added Pedro Irigonegaray, a Topeka attorney representing the Kelly administration. “Why this vindictive attitude towards this class of individuals?”
The Kansas law was part of a wave of measures from GOP-controlled Legislatures across the U.S. to roll back transgender rights. Montana, North Dakota and Tennessee also enacted laws defining man and woman, and Republican governors issued executive orders in Nebraska and Oklahoma, where nonbinary teenager Nex Benedict was bullied and died after a fight in a girls bathroom at a school. Similar measures have been proposed in at least 13 other states.
The Kansas law doesn’t mention driver’s licenses or birth certificates but says for the purposes of any state law or regulation, a person’s sex is “either male or female,” based on their “biological reproductive system” identified at birth. Watson ruled that the law’s language is clear and “there are no exceptions.”
Connecticut
Reputed gang leader acquitted of murder charge after 3rd trial
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut man who denies having led a violent Hartford gang has been acquitted of a murder charge and freed following a third trial that resulted from the state Supreme Court overturning his conviction.
Donald Raynor, now 38, broke down in tears when the state court jury announced its not guilty verdict Monday, said his lawyer, Trent LaLima. He was then freed after having spent the past decade detained on bail.
“Donald Raynor has been waiting 10 years in prison for a jury to say not guilty and finally that day has come,” LaLima said Tuesday. “I know he’s grateful for all the support of friends and family during this long ordeal.”
Raynor was arrested in a cold case and charged with murder in 2013 in the drive-by fatal shooting of 22-year-old Delano Gray in 2007. Police alleged Raynor led the violent Money Green/Bedroc gang that had a “hit squad” and trafficked drugs in the city’s North End, while Gray was a rival gang member.
Raynor’s first trial ended in a hung jury. He was convicted of murder in a second trial in 2015 and sentenced to 60 years in prison.
The state Supreme Court in December 2020 overturned the conviction and ordered a third trial. Justices said in a 6-0 ruling that the trial judge improperly denied Raynor’s request for a hearing to challenge the ballistics evidence in the case and improperly allowed evidence of alleged crimes by Raynor for which he was never charged.
Raynor maintained his innocence since being arrested. LaLima claimed the state’s key witness was facing other murder and shooting charges and implicated Raynor in Gray’s shooting to get a better plea deal.
Woman accused of killing husband and hiding body pleads guilty to manslaughter
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A 76-year-old Connecticut woman who was accused of killing her husband, hiding his body for months and collecting his paychecks pleaded guilty to manslaughter Monday, a state prosecutor said.
Linda Kosuda-Bigazzi was arrested in February 2018 in the death of her husband, Dr. Pierluigi Bigazzi, a professor of laboratory science and pathology at UConn Health. The body of the 84-year-old man was found in the basement of the couple’s home in Burlington, Connecticut, when police came over for a wellness check.
The medical examiner said Dr. Bigazzi died of blunt trauma to the head. Investigators said they believe he died sometime in July 2017 and that UConn Health paychecks were deposited into the couple’s joint checking account from the time of his death until February 2018.
Prosecutors pursuing a murder case against Kosuda-Bigazzi claimed she left his body wrapped in plastic in their home for months while she continued to collect his salary.
Kosuda-Bigazzi had claimed self-defense in the killing.
Hartford State’s Attorney Sharmese Walcott said Monday that Kosuda-Bigazzi pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and first-degree larceny.
“This case has been pending for six years so we are thankful we were able to reach a resolution today,” Walcott said in a prepared release.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 28.
Kansas
Judge: Barring driver’s license changes doesn’t violate trans people’s rights
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas judge ruled Monday that the state isn’t violating transgender residents’ rights under the state constitution by refusing to change their driver’s licenses to reflect their gender identities.
District Judge Teresa Watson kept in place indefinitely an order she first issued in July 2023 to prevent the Kansas Department of Revenue from changing the listing for “sex” on transgender people’s driver’s licenses. Attorney General Kris Kobach, a conservative Republican, sued Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration to stop such changes in line with a 2023 law that ended legal recognition of transgender people’s identities.
Watson allowed transgender Kansas residents to intervene in Kobach’s lawsuit, and the American Civil Liberties Union argued on their behalf that the no-changes policy violated rights protected by the Kansas Constitution. The Kansas Supreme Court declared in 2019 that the state constitution grants a right to bodily autonomy, though the decision dealt with abortion rights, not LGBTQ+ rights.
Watson said invoking the right to bodily autonomy to require the state to change driver’s licenses would be “an unreasonable stretch.” She said Kansas residents do not have a fundamental right under the state constitution to “control what information is displayed on a state-issued driver’s license.”
“Information recorded on a driver’s license does not interfere with transgender persons’ ability to control their own bodies or assert bodily integrity or self-determination,” Watson wrote in her 31-page order, issued in Shawnee County, home to the state capital of Topeka.
Kelly supports LGBTQ+ rights. After she took office in 2019, her administration allowed transgender people to change their driver’s licenses and birth certificates to reflect their gender identities.
The Republican-controlled Legislature overrode her veto to enact the 2023 law, and transgender people can no longer change either identity document, thanks to Kobach’s efforts.
It’s not clear whether Kelly’s administration or transgender Kansas residents will appeal Watson’s ruling. D.C. Hiegert, an ACLU of Kansas LGBTQ+ legal fellow who is trans, predicted that Watson’s ruling will lead to transgender people being harassed and denied services.
“What possible reason can we articulate to deny our transgender population peace of mind?” added Pedro Irigonegaray, a Topeka attorney representing the Kelly administration. “Why this vindictive attitude towards this class of individuals?”
The Kansas law was part of a wave of measures from GOP-controlled Legislatures across the U.S. to roll back transgender rights. Montana, North Dakota and Tennessee also enacted laws defining man and woman, and Republican governors issued executive orders in Nebraska and Oklahoma, where nonbinary teenager Nex Benedict was bullied and died after a fight in a girls bathroom at a school. Similar measures have been proposed in at least 13 other states.
The Kansas law doesn’t mention driver’s licenses or birth certificates but says for the purposes of any state law or regulation, a person’s sex is “either male or female,” based on their “biological reproductive system” identified at birth. Watson ruled that the law’s language is clear and “there are no exceptions.”
Connecticut
Reputed gang leader acquitted of murder charge after 3rd trial
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut man who denies having led a violent Hartford gang has been acquitted of a murder charge and freed following a third trial that resulted from the state Supreme Court overturning his conviction.
Donald Raynor, now 38, broke down in tears when the state court jury announced its not guilty verdict Monday, said his lawyer, Trent LaLima. He was then freed after having spent the past decade detained on bail.
“Donald Raynor has been waiting 10 years in prison for a jury to say not guilty and finally that day has come,” LaLima said Tuesday. “I know he’s grateful for all the support of friends and family during this long ordeal.”
Raynor was arrested in a cold case and charged with murder in 2013 in the drive-by fatal shooting of 22-year-old Delano Gray in 2007. Police alleged Raynor led the violent Money Green/Bedroc gang that had a “hit squad” and trafficked drugs in the city’s North End, while Gray was a rival gang member.
Raynor’s first trial ended in a hung jury. He was convicted of murder in a second trial in 2015 and sentenced to 60 years in prison.
The state Supreme Court in December 2020 overturned the conviction and ordered a third trial. Justices said in a 6-0 ruling that the trial judge improperly denied Raynor’s request for a hearing to challenge the ballistics evidence in the case and improperly allowed evidence of alleged crimes by Raynor for which he was never charged.
Raynor maintained his innocence since being arrested. LaLima claimed the state’s key witness was facing other murder and shooting charges and implicated Raynor in Gray’s shooting to get a better plea deal.
