FARMINGTON -- Police arrested two suspects in connection with a 2014 home invasion in which a woman was held with a knife to her throat and robbed of tens of thousands of dollars in jewelry.
Police in Staten Island, New York arrested Robert Costanzo, 45, when he was in court on unrelated charges. He was extradited to Connecticut and appeared in Hartford Superior Court Tuesday. He was charged with home invasion, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree robbery, first-degree larceny and first-degree burglary. Bond was set at $1 million.
Police said on April 24, 2014 they responded to a home on South Ridge Road after a 66-year-old woman reported that an intruder had pulled her from her bed in the early morning hours. She said the suspect held a kitchen knife to her throat and forced her to give him the combination to a safe. The suspect took about $76,000 worth of jewelry from the safe, according to police.
Detectives focused on Costanzo as the suspect because he had made calls on his cell phone while in the home, according to the arrest warrant. Police traced those calls to Geovani Melendez, 45, of New Britain, who is charged with hindering prosecution in th second degree and making a false statement in the second degree.
Police said Melendez originally lied about his association with Costanzo, but eventually admitted he dropped Costanzo off near the Farmington neighborhood the morning of the crime and then picked him up hours later.
Learning of the arrest, the victim, who asked not to be named, said it was an "absolutely horrible experience."
She also thanked police. "I would like to say the Farmington Police Department is magnificent, they never gave up, they care, and they just kept going and going."
Costanzo is a registered sex offender, and was convicted of first-degree rape and first-degree burglary with a weapon in 1992.
