Man to serve three years in New London stabbing
A 52-year-old New London man who stabbed a friend with a utility knife while they drank and watched football together in January 2015, partially severing his ear, was sentenced Tuesday in New London Superior Court to three years in prison followed by four years of special parole.
Terry Pipkin, who has been incarcerated since the incident, had pleaded guilty last month to first-degree assault. He pleaded guilty under the Alford Doctrine, indicating he doesn't agree with the state's version of the crime but does not want to risk a harsher sentence if convicted at trial.
The victim, 49-year-old Leonard Fraiter, did not attend the sentencing hearing before Judge Hillary B. Strackbein.
According to New London police, officers who were called to 200 Montauk Ave. found Fraiter bleeding profusely and using towels to apply pressure to his wounds. He had suffered a stab wound to the left side of his neck and abdomen, and his left ear was partially severed, according to the affidavit.
Fraiter was taken to Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, then transported to Yale New Haven Hospital due to the severity of his injuries. Inside the home, police said it was apparent from overturned furniture and blood on the floor, furniture and walls that a struggle had occurred.
A female tenant of the home, an ex-girlfriend of Pipkin, told police she was watching football with the two men when Fraiter called her an offensive name. She said Pipkin started arguing with Fraiter and she told Pipkin not to worry about it. She said she went to the bathroom, and when she came out, she saw Pipkin assaulting Fraiter with a utility knife. She said Pipkin then ran out of the house and threw the knife in the bushes.
Pipkin was arrested at the scene and in an interview with detectives said he and Fraiter were drinking beer and vodka and that an argument broke out when Fraiter became abusive to him and the woman. He said they began to push one another, and Fraiter retrieved a butcher knife from the kitchen. Pipkin said he blacked out and the next thing he remembered was being on the front porch when the police arrived.
Police said they recovered the utility knife on the sidewalk near a row of bushes.
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