Innocence group takes convicted killer’s case

Innocence group takes convicted killer’s case

By GREG SMITH
Norwich Bulletin
Mar 08, 2010
New London, Conn.

A state organization with an impressive track record of freeing wrongfully convicted inmates has set its sights on the case of a Montville man serving a 35-year-sentence for killing his wife in 1988.

Representatives from The Connecticut Innocence Project, a division of the state public defender services, arrived in New London Superior Court on Monday to collect evidence in the case of Erik C. Rasmussen, who was 25 in 1990 when a jury convicted hm of murdering his wife, 22-year-old Loreli T. Rasmussen.

Loreli Rasmussen was discovered in their home lying in a pool of blood with a homemade spear protruding from her chest.

DNA test
Rasmussen, who has maintained his innocence since his arrest, would be the first case examined with the help of a nearly $1.5 million post-conviction DNA federal grant awarded collectively to the Connecticut Innocence Project, Office of the Chief State’s Attorney and state forensic science laboratory.

Erik Rasmussen

Cases to be considered by the project must involve someone in custody convicted of murder, non-negligent manslaughter or forcible rape.

“What we’re doing is looking at old cases where the defendants claim they are innocent,” Connecticut Innocence Project Director Karen Goodrow said. “In this case, there was no DNA testing done.”

So far, Goodrow said, about 200 inmates have expressed interest in participating.

Wearing prison khakis, Rasmussen appeared briefly before Judge Susan B. Handy on Monday in New London with Goodrow and attorney John Watson. Handy approved a motion for release of evidence, which includes blood samples, fingerprints and a window from the home where the murder occurred.

Goodrow said the window and fingernail scraping would be the first things to be tested for DNA at the lab. They will await the results.

Details of the case are recounted in 2004 book “Justice Denied: The Trial of Erik Rasmussen,” written by Rasmussen. Rasmussen claims police directed the investigation completely at him, overlooked evidence and even altered reports to convict an innocent man.

At 1:58 a.m. May 5, 1988, a frantic Rasmussen called state police in Montville to report he awoke to a “clunk” and found his wife’s body in a spare bedroom at their home at 2443 Route 32 in Montville. She was naked in a pool of blood with a sharpened mason’s trowel fastened to a wooden dowel buried in her chest. An autopsy revealed she was strangled and stabbed in the throat four times.

Rasmussen theorized the murder was the work of a burglar who cut through a screen door, dismantled the burglar alarm and somehow escaped. The state maintained she died four hours before he called police and suspected the burglary was staged.

Dungeons and Dragons
There was no known motive for the killing, but police had seized numerous books pertaining to medieval weaponry, witchcraft and the fantasy game Dungeons and Dragons.

Among the most recent victories for the Connecticut Innocence Project was the 2009 exoneration of Kenneth Ireland, who served 21 years for a rape and murder he did not commit, Goodrow said. He was released because of DNA testing that proved his innocence.

Rasmussen, now 44, is scheduled for release in 2014.

Innocent Imprisoned

Truth in Justice