HARTFORD — A serial sex offender already convicted of killing two women in Hartford was arrested Monday as a result of a cold case investigation and charged in the murders of two more women in Hartford over the last two decades.
Robert White, 56, was charged with one count each of capital felony and murder in the 1997 slaying of Shiraleen Crawford and one count of murder with special circumstances, felony murder and murder in the 2012 slaying of Sonia Rivera.
White is already serving a 50-year prison sentence for murdering Sawarie Krichindath, who was found dead in her Hartford apartment on March 16, 2013. He was previously convicted in 1980 of manslaughter in the beating death of Betty Robertson, also in Hartford.
According to the arrest warrant, White is a registered sex offender with a “pattern of violence against women, often including violent sexual encounters.”
Shiraleen Crawford, age 30, was found dead in her apartment on Martin Street in Hartford on August 14, 1997. An autopsy determined she died from blunt trauma to the head and also suffered stab wounds to the head, chest and neck.
Sonia Rivera, age 48, was found unresponsive in an alley off Washington Street in Hartford on September 27, 2012. The victim of trauma to her head and face, she died in the hospital on October 3, 2012.
White was arraigned Monday in Hartford Superior Court where bond was set at $1 million in each case. He appears in court again on September 26.