Man convicted in 1989 of stabbing Seymour woman to death and dumping her body in river is set free

David Weinberg, 58, convicted of killing Joyce Stochmal in 1984, in court Thursday in Waterbury. David Weinberg, 58, convicted of killing Joyce Stochmal in 1984, in court Thursday in Waterbury. Photo: LAUREN SCHNEIDERMAN — Hartford Courant Photo: LAUREN SCHNEIDERMAN — Hartford Courant Image 1 of / 18 Caption Close Man convicted in 1989 of stabbing Seymour woman to death and dumping her body in river is set free 1 / 18 Back to Gallery

WATERBURY >> A Superior Court judge ordered David J. Weinberg — convicted in 1989 of the 1984 stabbing murder of 19-year-old Joyce Stochmal of Seymour — released on time served Thursday, following seven years of work by the Connecticut Innocence Project and some blistering criticism from four of the victim’s siblings.

The approval of a “sentence modification” by Judge Roland D. Fasano allowed Weinberg, now 58, to be released after serving 26 years of a 60-year “life sentence” — although credit for good behavior and other time he earned raised the time he is credited with serving to 39 years and 27 days.

Fasano’s decision, which the Stochmal family knew was coming, came after he approved a stipulated agreement between the state, the Public Defender’s Office and the Connecticut Innocence Project, which is a program within the Public Defender’s Office.

The agreement was prompted by what Waterbury State’s Attorney Maureen Platt described as five “problems” with the state’s case that called into question whether a conviction could be secured were it to be tried again.

Platt, members of the Stochmal family and Connecticut Innocence Project Director Darcy McGraw all pointed out that as part of the negotiated agreement, Weinberg’s conviction will stand — something that both Platt and Marianne Stochmal Heffernan, Joyce Stochmal’s older sister, said was important to the family and the state.

But that didn’t lessen the pain felt by Stochmal’s family.

“Today, the state of Connecticut released a guilty, convicted murderer from his life sentence,” said Heffernan, a former New Haven Register reporter and bureau chief, flanked by family members on the steps of the courthouse after the proceeding ended.

“It’s hard to believe, but yes, it is possible for a convicted murderer to walk out of a courthouse as a guilty person allowed to go free,” said Heffernan, who was two years older than her sister and Joyce Stochmal’s twin brother, John, who died in 2002.

According to testimony in his trial, Weinberg drove by Joyce Stochmal as she was walking along Route 188 in Seymour to her job at a dog kennel, carrying her purse and a duffel bag holding a makeup case and a change of clothes, included jeans, a T-shirt and underwear. Police said he grabbed her and took her to an area beneath Steel Bridge in Newtown, where he stabbed her 17 times and left her body in Lake Zoar, a dammed section of the Housatonic River.

Her body was found three days later by three people out fishing.

Heffernan said it has been nearly 33 years “since David Weinberg killed our Joyce. But the Connecticut Innocence Project and the state of Connecticut decided that 26 years in prison out of a 60-years-to-life sentence is ‘good enough.’ ... Today, the state of Connecticut and its judicial system failed us all.”

McGraw declined to comment beyond what she said in court.

Under the terms of the agreement, Weinberg waived “any and all claims” with regard to the most recent court proceedings and any challenge “to the validity of his underlying conviction or sentence for murder.”

That included any right to apply “for any writ of habeas corpus,” any petition for a new trial, sentence review or pardon and any right to pursue civil action.

Neither party conceded “that the claims or defenses of the other has merit” — and all parties stipulated “that the petitioner is not hereby exonerated or otherwise determined to be innocent of the charges.”

The proceedings took place in a courtroom filled with pain and bitterness, with McGraw pointing out that while she acknowledged the Stochmal family’s obvious pain, Weinberg — who has maintained his innocence since he was first confronted by police — lost both his mother and father while he was in prison.

Nearly 60 people attended — at least 28 of them Stochmal relatives, family members said.

Weinberg, whose balding head is now shaved and whose beard is now white, showed little emotion as he sat with his hands clasped at a table in a packed courtroom between his two attorneys, McGraw and Senior Assistant Public Defender Barbara Sorrentino, listening to the court proceedings.

His face flushed several times, however, as Stochmal family members called him a murderer — and any number of other things — and described the damage that the actions he was convicted of had done to their family and themselves.

Brother Joseph Stochmal, who read a statement along with Heffernan, their brothers James and Paul Stochmal and Paul Stochmal’s wife, Karen Stochmal, repeatedly called Weinberg a “monster” whose past crimes had included “burning down a church, mutilating animals, sexual assault, threatening to kill a local business owner and his wife, and making harassing phone calls for over 2.5 years.”

He talked about how the loss of Joyce Stochmal changed the big family — which used to celebrate all the holidays together — especially Christmas Eve, which was Joyce and John’s birthday, when they would get together and eat pierogis and sauerkraut soup and break oplatki — Polish Christmas wafers.

“That all changed on the night of Aug. 3, 1984 when Joyce was taken from us by a monster,” he said. In more recent years, “We no longer really celebrate holidays or birthdays. Christmas Eve is the most difficult day for our family to get through. ... Over time we have tried to get back to a life of normalcy, but you never truly do. There is always something missing.”

James Stochmal said that he thinks the witnesses, the prosecutor and court got it right the first time and “in this case (the Connecticut Innocence Project) got it 100 percent wrong.”

He said that before Thursday’s proceedings that while his emotions range from anger to hate, “I asked God, I asked Jesus, ‘Tell me what to say,’” and that the answer came in three words, which if he had a chance to speak directly with Weinberg, he would say: “I forgive you.”

His older sister, Heffernan, reminded the court that “we are the victims here today, given that label by David Weinberg. ... We have been wronged by the justice system. We have been terrorized by David Weinberg. We have been abused by the Innocence Project and we have a right to feel this way.”

She pointed out her sister in nine poster-sized blow-ups that the family mounted on the windows along the right side of the courtroom as she faced the judge.

She also told Fasano that “every year since 1984, there has been an empty seat at our dinner table on Christmas Eve.” She said that “as the only girl left in our family, I also lost freedom” because of the fears her family had.

“David Weinberg stole that freedom from me, and in doing so, inflicted horrific fear into my father and the rest of my family,” she said, adding later, “I miss having a sister, every day of my life.”

Paul Stochmal called Weinberg “a selfish, brutal animal,” as well as “a lying, convicted killer, still trying to cheat the system.

“God knows he committed this crime, I know it and he knows it,” he said. “As a Christian, my faith tells me I have to forgive him. That is not an easy thing.”

He said of the Connecticut Innocence Project, “You don’t know what kind of animal you are letting out of his cage.” He suggested that McGraw “let him sleep at your house.”

Karen Stochmal read a statement from Joyce Stochmal’s parents.

According to Platt, the problems with the state’s case included two statements that McGraw said she found “in a box” that never were turned over to the defense, in which a woman identified in court as “L.C.” — someone who Platt said was “known to be disturbed” — allegedly said that she killed Joyce Stochmal and threw her purse into Lake Zoar, weighted down by pieces of asphalt.

All the contents were intact except for money, the woman told police, she said.

The two statements, one to Meriden police and one to state police “were not consistent with one another,” Platt said, but she acknowledged that “the statement should have been turned over” to Weinberg’s attorney at the time, New Haven attorney John R. Williams.

But Platt said that to her knowledge, the state “did not have” the statements and they came from the Weinberg family.

McGraw later said she’s the one who found them.

Platt also described problems with the analysis of fibers and hairs found in Weinberg’s car and at a site where evidence allegedly was burned.

While testimony in the trail suggested that fibers from both locations appeared to be consistent, “the rules of evidence have changed” since then and the state can no longer say that they were identical.

There also were problems with a knife found in Weinberg’s home that expert witness Henry C. Lee testified was stained with blood that could be animal or human. Subsequent analysis suggests it could only be animal blood, she said.

McGraw alleged that Lee “testified falsely” and “knew or should have known” that the substance either was animal blood or something other than blood, she said.

Lee also testified at that time that fine hairs found in Weinberg’s car were consistent with Joyce Stochmal’s hair, but testing since then shows that two of the hairs were not hers and “there were chain of custody issues” with the third hair, said Platt..

In addition, more sophisticated modern analysis of DNA found under Stochmal’s fingernails now excludes both Stochmal and Weinberg, Platt said.

House Republican Leader Themis Klarides, who attended the hearing, called for reforms to restrict convicted felons from earning “good time” credits to get out of prison early — and said a hearing will take place March 20 on legislation that would prohibit anyone sentenced prior to 1994 from doing so.

Previous legislation eliminated good time credits for inmates sentenced since 1994.

“The Stochmal family members have endured so much pain since they lost Joyce nearly 33 years ago, and the early release of her murderer today compounds their suffering,” Klarides said in a release. “We need to change the laws to make them tougher and clearer when it comes to crediting violent felons for simply serving their sentences.”