Man charged with threatening after drug deal goes bad

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Jakob Bette
Jakob Bette

NAUGATUCK — Police arrested a Woodbury man Tuesday on charges including witness intimidation after they said he threatened to kill another man following a drug deal gone wrong.

Later, a mutual friend told the man who was allegedly threatened that Jakob Bette, 45, of 1761 Main St. North, Woodbury, had killed before and had a body in his freezer, said Lt. Bryan Cammarata of the Naugatuck Police Department. Borough and state police are investigating the claim, Cammarata said.

Bette had asked an acquaintance, 26-year-old Desirae Duda of 112 Forest St. in the borough, to buy him $950 worth of Oxycodone pills, Cammarata said. Duda went to Waterbury to buy the pills, but the dealer did not have enough so she only spent about half the money, Cammarata said.

Duda, with her 4-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter in tow, went Monday to Bette’s house to give him the pills, Cammarata said. Duda told police she had forgotten that 10 pills were in her back pocket and she had misplaced some of the money she owed Bette.

Duda told police Bette threw her into a chair and threatened to kill her and her children, charges that the Woodbury resident trooper’s office is investigating, Cammarata said.

Bette then told Duda he was going to drive her home and keep her car as collateral, Cammarata said. While Bette was driving, Duda texted her boyfriend, who is the father of her children, to say she was in trouble, Cammarata said. The boyfriend immediately called police, Cammarata said.

Police were at Duda’s home talking to her boyfriend when Bette pulled up with her in the passenger seat and the two children in the back, Cammarata said. When Duda got out and pulled her iPhone out of her back pocket, 10 Oxycodone pills in a plastic bag fell out, Cammarata said.

Police seized the pills and the $950 that Bette gave Duda, Cammarata said. They charged Duda on Monday with possession of illegal drugs with an intent to sell and risk of injury to a child. She was released on a $5,000 bond to appear the next day in Waterbury Superior Court. Bette was charged with conspiracy at possessing illegal drugs with an intent to sell and was released on a $5,000 bond to appear Oct. 30 in Waterbury Superior Court.

Bette believed Duda’s boyfriend had taken the missing money and pills, and the next day Duda’s boyfriend got a text message from a mutual friend warning that Bette had killed before and had the body in his freezer, Cammarata said. The friend gave the full name of the man Bette had supposedly killed, but Cammarata declined to give the name and said police were investigating whether someone by that name had been murdered.

Bette himself then sent text messages threatening to kill Duda’s boyfriend and their children, saying the boyfriend owed him $1,000 to cover the money that was seized, Cammarata said.

The boyfriend called police again and turned over the text messages, and Woodbury police arrested Bette on charges of harassment in the first degree, witness intimidation, breach of peace and threatening in the second degree. He was held on a $15,000 bond to appear Oct. 23 in Waterbury Superior Court.