Superior Court Judge Arthur C. Hadden ruled Friday that two people will split a $50,000 reward for providing information that led to the arrest and conviction of Renee Pellegrino's killer.

Toni Wilson of New London, the mother of Anderson's two sons, and Arthur Moore of New Haven, Anderson's cellmate at the Osborn Correctional Institution, each will be receiving $25,000 from the state. 

Each provided police with information about the 1997 murder during the investigation and testified at Anderson's murder trial in 2012.

He was convicted and sentenced to 60 years in prison.  

Hadden authorized the rewards during a hearing in Superior Court in Norwich.

Wilson and Moore attended with their attorneys, as did Anderson, who was brought to court from the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution and who, witnesses said, turned and made a comment about "enjoying the reward" as judicial marshals led him back to the courthouse lockup.

Attorney Jason Burdick, who represents Wilson, said she is relieved that she was recognized for doing the right thing.

"My understanding is the judge recognized that the policy is to encourage people to come forward with information that otherwise wouldn't be available," he said.

Pellegrino, 41 and pregnant, was fatally strangled and left on a Waterford cul-de-sac in June 1997.

The investigation of her death had gone cold by 1999, when Gov. John G. Rowland authorized the $50,000 reward for information.

More than a decade later police charged Anderson with her murder after receiving DNA information linking Anderson to the crime and obtaining statements from Wilson and Moore. 

Wilson testified Anderson had started crying one night and admitted killing a woman with whom he had "hooked up."

Wilson said Anderson told her the woman demanded money after they had sex, and that he didn't want to pay her and killed her after they fought.

Moore, at the request of Department of Correction officials and state police, pumped Anderson for information while the two were incarcerated together.

He told police Anderson admitted putting his hands around Pellegrino's neck and shaking her.

Moore reported that Anderson told him Pellegrino "was sleeping," so he called a friend who helped him take her from New London to Waterford, and "pushed her out of the car."

The state Supreme Court affirmed Anderson's conviction in 2015, clearing the way for Moore and Wilson, who had first sought the reward money in 2012 but had been told to reapply after Anderson exhausted his appeals.

Hadden noted during recent hearings that there is little legal precedent on the state law regarding the distribution of rewards and that he would be looking at case law beyond Connecticut.

Hadden also reviewed briefs from Wilson's and Moore's attorneys before deciding to split the reward.

"He decided that under all the circumstances, he felt it was appropriate to pay the reward, and he wasn't inclined to say that one deserved it more than the other," said prosecutor Stephen M. Carney, who had tried the case and supported the distribution of the reward money.

Attorney Robert J. Vontell said he would be researching how to actually collect the reward now that it has been authorized.

He said Moore was on heart medication during a hearing January in which he said the reward was his main motivation for helping with the case.

"Everyone seemed to appreciate that both petitioners were honest and sincere in their testimony," Vontell said.

The state has a strong interest in following through when rewards are offered and is doing so, he said.

k.florin@theday.com