A Romanian national has pleaded guilty in federal court to a charge relating to a 2007 home invasion that saw the perpetrators inject two adult victims in Connecticut with what they said was a deadly virus and demand millions of dollars for the antidote.
Stefan Alexandru Barabas, 38, is the last of four suspects to face justice in the case, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut.
The intruders told the victims they would be left to die if they didn’t pony up $8.5 million, but they soon realized their victims could not meet those demands. They then injected the victims with a sleeping aid and fled in their Jeep Cherokee.
The Cherokee was found abandoned at a Home Depot in New Rochelle, New York, the following morning. Less than a week later, an accordion case washed ashore in Jamaica Bay. Inside, investigators found a stun gun, a 12-inch knife, a black plastic Airsoft gun, a crowbar, syringes, sleeping pills, latex gloves, and a laminated telephone card with the address of the victims.
Three years later, a Connecticut State Police investigators connected a partial Pennsylvania license plate number — seen by a witness near the victims’ South Kent estate on the night of the home invasion — to a vehicle owned by Michael N. Kennedy, a dual Romanian citizens also known Nicolae Helerea. Kennedy, the investigator learned at one point lived with Emanuel Nicolescu, who had previously been employed by the home invasion victims.
Following up on that information, the investigators found cell phone data from a phone number registered to Nicolescu on a cell tower near the New Rochelle Home Depot just minutes after the Jeep Cherokee was abandoned there. Shortly after that, investigators found that DNA from Nicolescue matched a sample found on the Jeep’s steering wheel.
Next, the investigators learne that Kennedy’s father had been a professional accordian player and that the knife found in the case had been a gift to Nicolescu from his father-in-law.
From there, the investigators determined that Kennedy and Emmanuel Nicolescu had worked with Barabas and Alexandru Nicolescu to plan and commit the home invasion. The four men purchased two-way radios, stun guns, and fake pistols, and on the night of April 15, Kennedy drove Barabas, Emanuel Nicolescu, and Alexandru Nicolescu to South Kent and picked them up the following morning in New Rochelle.
The four then fled the United States. Emanuel Nicolescu returned to the United States and was arrested in Illinois in January 2011. He and Kennedy were indicted the following month. Barabas and Alexandru Nicolescu were indicted in November 2012.
Emanuel Nicolescu was found guilt in March 2012 of attempted extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion, and possession of a stolen vehicle. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Alexandru Nicolescu was arrested in 2013 in the United Kingdom and pleaded guilty to attempted extortion and conspsiracy to commit extortion in 2015. He was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison in 2019.
Kennedy voluntarily returned to the United States in 2012 and pleaded guilty to attempted extortion and conspiracy to commit extortion. He was sentenced to 4 years in prision in 2016.
Barabas remained a fugitive until he was arrested in Hungary on August 16, 2022. He pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by extortion, which carries a maximum of 20 years in prison. But under the terms of a plea deal, both sides have agreed to a sentence between 6 and 7 years in prison.
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[Featured image: Stefan Alexandru Barabas/FBI]
