Malito Case Headed To Trial

By LARRY SMITH

Hartford Courant

April 29, 2008

The case of a 55-year-old man accused of trying to have a state's attorney, deputy chief state's attorney and a state police detective killed is going to trial.

Judge David P. Gold told Ralph Malito Tuesday that his trial will start some time this summer in Superior Court in Hartford. Gold put the case on the trial list after Malito rejected an undisclosed plea agreement offer.

'It's going to be a case that's going to get immediate attention,' Gold said.

Malito allegedly sought someone to kill Deputy Chief State's Attorney Paul E. Murray and Tolland County State's Attorney Matthew C. Gedansky for $250,000, and offered $200,000 more to have a police officer killed. Malito also has charges pending from 2003 when he was accused of trying to hire someone to kill his wife.

Margaret Levy, Malito's attorney, said she tried to discuss the judge's plea offer with her client but has not been able to speak with him. Levy said she sent a letter detailing the offer and then received a letter from Malito saying he longer wanted to speak with her.

Levy on Tuesday asked that Gold allow Malito to be tested for his competency to stand trial. Malito's actions during the past few weeks may indicate that he doesn't understand the proceedings, she said.

Gold rejected the motion for a competency examination, saying Malito's actions fit a pattern he exhibited while his older cases were pending in Superior Court in Rockville.

'I'm not going to let this case languish for five years,' Gold said.

Kenya Brown, an inmate at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield, where Malito was being held in 2005, told an FBI agent that Malito had asked him to kill the prosecutors and detective after he was released.

Malito is serving a 15-year sentence after being convicted in 1999 of the attempted kidnapping of his two children in 1995. Malito tried to hire other inmates to kill his ex-wife in 1995 and 1996. He was convicted of attempted assault in both cases and given terms concurrent with his first conviction.

In August, a judge ruled against Levy's attempt to have the state's attorney's system disqualified because there might be a conflict of interest. Judge Thomas P. Miano said the fact that two state's attorneys are alleged victims of a crime does not automatically disqualify the state's attorney system from prosecuting the case.

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