A Romanian man has admitted his role in a bizarre home invasion that involved a wealthy man having his home invaded. connecticut couple He was injected with a harmless blue dye, told the injection contained a “deadly virus”, and ordered to pay $8.5 million for an antidote.
According to a Department of Justice press release, 38-year-old Stefan Alexandru Barbas pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by extortion, and if his plea agreement is accepted, he faces six to seven years in prison.
According to the release, shortly before midnight on April 15, 2007, Barabas and his accomplices, Emanuel Nicolescu and Alexandru Lucian Nicolescu, broke into a mansion in south Kent wearing masks, brandishing knives and carrying airsoft guns that resembled real firearms.
“The men bound and blindfolded the two adult victims and injected each of them with a substance the intruders claimed was a deadly virus,” the release said. “The intruders ordered the victims to pay $8.5 million or they would be left to die by lethal injection. When it became apparent the victims were in no position to meet the intruders’ demands, the intruders administered a sedative to two of the residents and fled the home in the homeowner’s Jeep.”
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Stefan Alexandru Barbas, 38, pleaded guilty in a Connecticut court on Tuesday for his role in the bizarre home invasion scheme. (FBI handout)
As The Oneida Daily Dispatch reports, the home belonged to investor, documentary filmmaker and art collector Anne Bass, the ex-wife of Texas billionaire Sid Bass. The outlet reported that Emanuel Nicolescu was previously her butler.
Bass and her lover, artist Julian Lethbridge, were held hostage for five to six hours and were repeatedly told to maintain relations with her husband. raised $8.5 millionAccording to her court testimony in Emanuel Nicolescu’s criminal trial, covered by local outlets, Bass’ 3-year-old grandson remained asleep throughout the incident and was uninjured.
The Jeep was recovered the next morning in a parking lot about 65 miles away in New Rochelle, New York, the department said.
A week after the home invasion, key evidence in the case washed up on a beach in Jamaica Bay on Long Island. Inside an accordion case, authorities recovered a stun gun, a black plastic airsoft gun, a 12-inch knife, a crowbar, sleeping pills, syringes, latex gloves and a laminated card with the address of the victims’ South Kent home.
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Anne Bass, the ex-wife of billionaire Sid Bass, and her lover Julian Lethbridge were forced into their home in 2007, tied up, blindfolded, and told they were being injected with a deadly virus. (associated Press)
Nearly three years later, a Connecticut State Police investigator linked a partial Pennsylvania license plate from the night of the home invasion to a car registered to Michael N. Kennedy, a fourth accomplice who had driven the three men to the home and later picked them up.
Investigators learned that Emanuel Nicolescu had previously lived with Kennedy. Cellphone data showed he had made the call at the same time and from the same location where the Jeep was abandoned. Then, his DNA was matched to the DNA recovered in the car.
Investigators learned that Kennedy’s father was a professional accordion player, and witnesses later identified the knife found in the accordion case as a gift given to Emanuel Nicolescu by his father-in-law, the Justice Department wrote.
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Emmanuel Nicolescu was Bass’ former butler at the South Kent mansion. Following the home invasion, he was convicted in 2012 of attempted extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion, and possession of a stolen vehicle and sentenced to 20 years in prison. (FBI handout)
“The investigation revealed that Emanuel Nicolaescu and Kennedy worked together with Barabas and Alexandru Nicolaescu.” committing a crimeThe DOJ said, “Barabas’ co-conspirators planned the home invasion, which included locating and purchasing the equipment needed for the crime, such as two-way radios, stun guns, and imitation pistols. On the night of April 15, 2007, Kennedy drove Barabas, Emanuel Nicolescu, and Alexandro Nicolescu to a location near the South Kent home, and then picked them up the next morning from a location in New Rochelle where the intruders had abandoned the stolen Jeep.”
During the investigation, all four men fled the US. Emanuel Nicolescu returned to the US and was arrested in Illinois in January 2011. Alexandru Nicolescu was tracked down to the United Kingdom and arrested on November 14, 2013, the DOJ wrote. Kennedy, who is a dual citizen of Romania and the US, voluntarily returned to the US in November 2021.
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Barabas, who pleaded guilty to additional charges this week, was a fugitive in Hungary until his arrest in August 2022.
The three accomplices were charged with attempted extortion and conspiracy to commit extortion, and Kennedy was additionally charged with possession of a stolen vehicle. According to the DOJ, Kennedy was sentenced to 48 months in prison; Alexandru Nicolaescu was sentenced to 10 years and one month in prison; and Emanuel Nicolaescu was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Barabas has been in custody since his 2022 arrest and is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 11, according to the agency.
