Four young men sentenced in EL home invasion

Four young men who broke into a house in the Giants Neck Heights section of East Lyme in January and assaulted a teen who lived there have been sentenced to prison time in the past two weeks.

Kevin Kalal, 18, was sentenced this morning to 10 months in prison. Last week, Judge Susan B. Handy sentenced Emanuel Roman, 21, to 13 months. On Nov. 17, the judge sentenced Stephen Burnett, 21, to nine months in prison and Jeffrey Wheeler, 20, to 10 months in prison.

The case of a fifth defendant, teenager Alicia Plunkett, is pending. Plunkett is being tried as a youthful offender, so the outcome of her case will remain confidential.

According to court testimony, Burnett drove the other three men to the house, where Plunkett was with the victim, to get revenge for an earlier run-in that Plunkett had with the victim.

Kalal, Wheeler and Roman entered the house - Roman with a gun in his waistband - and Kalal punched the victim.

"You are so fortunate you are not standing here on manslaughter or murder charges," Handy told Roman at his sentencing last week.

As they were leaving the house, they broke a car windshield. The judge has ordered the defendants to jointly repay the homeowners the $568 replacement cost.

State’s attorney Michael L. Regan said authorities recovered a gun, but could not prosecute Roman on a gun charge because the search warrant used to recover the weapon was defective.