Plea deal means 4 years for Prospect man

0
539
John Satkunas Jr., right, pictured during his arraignment in September, was sentenced to four years in prison Feb. 25 in connection with a stabbing in Prospect as part of a plea deal. –RA ARCHIVE
John Satkunas Jr., right, pictured during his arraignment in September, was sentenced to four years in prison Feb. 25 in connection with a stabbing in Prospect as part of a plea deal. –RA ARCHIVE

WATERBURY — A Prospect man who was initially charged with attempted murder in connection with the knifing of another man was sentenced last week to four years in prison.

John Satkunas Jr., 21, was charged with trying to kill a 22-year-old man near a parking lot of 14 Waterbury Road in Prospect and was arrested after troopers chased him down.

The stabbing occurred near the spot of a suspicious fire that destroyed a Chinese food restaurant and a small office for a chimney and masonry company on Sept. 15. Accelerant was used to spark the blaze. Though state police listed Satkunas’ address as the same building that burned, he was never charged in connection with the fire.

As part of a plea deal, prosecutors dropped the attempted murder charge and Satkunas pleaded guilty to first-degree assault. Satkunas was sentenced Feb. 25 in Waterbury Superior Court.

State police say as they responded to a 911 call, the stabbing victim, whose name wasn’t released, stepped in front of an unmarked police cruiser. The man was bleeding from multiple stab wounds and was having trouble breathing because of a punctured lung. He told police Satkunas stabbed him, but couldn’t offer any other details.

Satkunas was chased down by troopers after he refused to surrender. Satkunas, whose hands were bloody, told police he didn’t know anything about the stabbing and asked for a lawyer. In his pockets, police found a blood-covered folding knife, along with a syringe and a spoon, which are commonly used to inject heroin.

There was little in the way of a motive for the attack, which wasn’t the first time Satkunas was charged in connection with pulling a knife on someone.

When he was just 16, Satkunas held up a patron of a skate park in Prospect in 2011. During that hold up, Satkunas pulled a knife and stole cash from his victim before escaping into the woods near Hotchkiss Park. Troopers tracked Satkunas to his home where they found him hiding in a closet.

Satkunas was convicted of first-degree robbery and was sentenced to two-and-half years in prison for that robbery. After he was released, he violated his probation and served a few more months behind bars.

In addition to the four years of prison reached in the recent plea deal, Satkunas will serve six years of special parole.