Dad of Baby Killed by Dog Admits to Setting Fire in New London, CT, Apartment
By Greg Smith
Source The Day, New London, Conn. (TNS)
A former Norwich man who police said set fire to a New London apartment while enraged over his baby’s killing by a dog pleaded no contest Wednesday to first-degree arson.
Timothy Settles, 36, entered the plea in New London Superior Court, leaving the decision about his prison time in the hands of Superior Court Judge John Newson. Settles entered the plea, which is treated by the courts like a guilty plea, as part of an agreement with state prosecutors that caps his sentence at 15 years. Sentencing is set for April 9.
Newson will decide on a sentence that could range from a fully suspended sentence with no prison time to 15 years. In court Wednesday, Newson told Settles that he should expect prison time.
“This is an incarceration case. This is not a suspended sentence case,” Newson said.
Settles has been held on a $500,000 bond since his Nov. 9, 2021, arrest by New London police. Settles was charged in connection with a fire set in a common area of an apartment building at 10 Rosemary St. in the early morning hours of May 11, 2021. Just hours before the fire, Settles, who was in a court-ordered drug and alcohol rehabilitation program in Stamford, learned that his son was dead.
Norwich police said a pit bull ripped 1-month-old Carter Settles from the arms of Timothy Settles’ mother while she and her grandson were visiting Timothy Settles’ girlfriend’s home on McKinley Avenue in Norwich on May 1, 2021. The baby suffered traumatic injuries and died at the hospital.
Police said Timothy Settles went to the hospital and then traveled with his mother to New London to visit Jerren Johnson, his girlfriend and the baby’s mother, who was staying with a friend at the 10 Rosemary St. apartment. Police said Settles was drinking, argued with Johnson over their son’s death and began smashing bottles in the parking lot of New London hotel.
Settles’ mother told police she left for New York and called police on her son because his behavior had gotten out of control. Police said they have evidence that Settles returned to 10 Rosemary St. multiple times and was heard banging on the door in the early morning hours of May 11, 2021, shortly before the fire started.
Assistant State’s Attorney Stephen Carney, who is prosecuting the case against Settles, said the fire started at about 4 a.m. While the occupants of the apartment building got out safely and were not injured, a firefighter sustained a head injury while fighting the fire.
In a letter to the court, Settles wrote that the rehabilitation program had been helping him to address his mental health issues and that the news of his son’s death had derailed his recovery. He described “excruciating indescribable pain and confusion” over the news.
Settles’ mother, Sheila Settles, in an email this week, said a psychological evaluation of her son has recommended treatment and not prison. Timothy Settles’ Manchester-based attorney, Ryan Barry, declined to comment specifically on Settles’ state of mind when the fire was started but said of the upcoming sentencing, “I think we have a very strong mitigation case to present to the judge.”
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