Antoine charged with baby’s death in Norwich murder case
The state added a charge Monday to the case against a Norwich man accused of fatally stabbing his pregnant wife, Margarette Mady, on June 2 and setting fire to their Norwich apartment.
Patrick Antoine, 39, already had been charged with murder and first-degree arson. Prosecutor David J. Smith added the charge of assault of a pregnant woman resulting in the termination of the pregnancy when Antoine was presented before Judge Hillary B. Strackbein in New London Superior Court.
Antoine, who has been held in lieu of $2 million bond since he turned himself in at the Norwich Police Department and said he had killed his wife while firefighters were still fighting the blaze, pleaded not guilty to all three charges.
The judge appointed Kevin C. Barrs, chief public defender, to represent Antoine. Barrs said Antoine was waiving his right to a probable cause hearing. As a defendant in a murder case, Antoine had the right, within 60 days of his arrest, to have a hearing at which the state would have to prove there was enough evidence to prosecute him.
More than a dozen relatives and friends of Mady watched from the gallery as Antoine, who was assisted by a Haitian Creole interpreter, appeared for the first time in the court where major crimes are heard.
Antoine told police he killed Mady because he believed she was “a voodoo priestess” who planned to kill him by July 1 as a sacrifice before her baby girl was to be born. He said they had argued all morning when he grabbed a wood-handled knife from the kitchen and stabbed her multiple times in the head and foot areas. Antoine said he used a Bic lighter to set the curtains in the bedroom, living room and bathroom on fire and left the home.
His next court date is July 26.
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