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Suspects found insane can’t profit from murder under bill prompted by Messenger case

HARTFORD — Connecticut lawmakers are again trying to bar people charged with murder or manslaughter but found not guilty by reason of insanity from benefiting f...
david messenger

HARTFORD — Connecticut lawmakers are again trying to bar people charged with murder or manslaughter but found not guilty by reason of insanity from benefiting from the victims’ deaths, including reaping life insurance windfalls.

The legislature’s Judiciary Committee is considering a bill prompted by David Messenger, who was acquitted by reason of insanity of beating his pregnant wife, Heather, to death at their Chaplin home in 1998.

A lawyer for Heather Messenger’s family believes David Messenger has more than $2 million in assets, including money he inherited as beneficiary of his wife’s estate.

David Messenger’s attorney disputed the $2 million figure but declined to comment further Friday. Messenger spent years in a secure psychiatric hospital and now lives under supervised release and treatment.

Similar bills have failed in the legislature several times since 2005.

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