Primary Suspect In Darien Cop Shooting To Be Sentenced On Drug Charges
HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork) -- Anthony Sabato, a West Haven man with a long criminal record and the primary suspect of a 1981 fatal cop shooting, will be sentenced in federal court in Hartford on a drug charge Wednesday.
Officer Kenneth Bateman was killed in May of 1981 when he responded to a nighttime burglary at The Dutchess restaurant in Darien, WCBS 880's Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau reported.
Angelo Toscano, a veteran of the Darien police force said suspect Anthony Sabato carried out several burglaries near the restaurant where Bateman was killed.
Toscano said police fingerprinted Sabato just days later and then tracked him for decades.
In March, Sabato received unrelated federal gun and drug charges.
Toscano blames lack of forensics technology in the past for being unable to directly tie Sabato to the Bateman murder case.
"If they had DNA in those days, we would have been able to extract it from things that were touched inside of The Duchess," Toscano said.
According to Toscano, intelligence consistently led police to Sabato. Sabato had even agreed to take a lie detector test, but backed out seconds before the test was going to start.
The murder currently remains unsolved.
Sabato could face up to 40 years in prison on the drug charges and 20 years on the weapon charge.