4th Home Invader Gets 18 1/2 Years

As her grandson headed to prison, Cassandra Waller wondered aloud whether his sentence would teach him anything — or just put him closer to the criminals he got caught up with one fateful spring night.

Tyquan Brown, who’s 19, was sentenced Thursday morning in Superior Court on Church Street for his role in a 2008 home invasion in East Rock. Judge Roland Fasano gave him 18 1/2 years.

“He’s going to know more about the prison system than he is about how to actually function,” said Waller (pictured) after court.

Waller, who’s 54, was one of three people who testified on Brown’s behalf. A high school teacher recounted how he befriended Brown and trusted him with his life on a rock-climbing cliff. A day care center director praised him for years of trusty leaf-raking. His pitfall was that he was a ​“weak-willed follower” who got caught up with the wrong crowd, they said. The adults in court debated his chance of reaching that potential after a long jail sentence.

Brown was three months shy of graduating high school on April 29, 2008, when he and three friends got drunk and high and decided to burglarize a home, court records show. They settled on 97 Loomis Place, where a woman was home alone. The house-sitter, Julia Ann O’Sullivan, was beaten with a baseball bat and tied to a chair while the young men ransacked the home and fled in her car. Three other men, Samuel Tyrone Evans, Matthew McNulty, and Tadd LeClaire, pleaded guilty to their roles in the crime and were sentenced in October to 18 to 20 years in prison each.

A few days later, on the eve of a scheduled trial, Brown pleaded guilty, too. He accepted the charges of home invasion, conspiracy to commit first-degree assault, first-degree robbery and conspiracy to commit second-degree larceny and agreed to serve 18 1/2 years behind bars. As part of the deal, state prosecutor John Waddock agreed to nolle a prior assault charge for which Brown was serving probation as a youthful offender. (State law requires a minimum 10-year sentence for home invasion.)

Thursday morning, Brown appeared in court in an orange jump suit and bright white sneakers. His victim arrived by wheelchair from an unrelated recent accident. She wiped away tears as Waddock recounted how she was left bleeding from a head wound, and barely escaped with her life.

Brown contended that unlike his friends, he was outside the home for the entire incident and never touched the victim.

His lawyer, Walter Bansley IV, apologized for his client’s conduct. He said Brown should have been preventing the crime, not letting it happen.

Standing tall in handcuffs and leg shackles, Brown looked the victim in the eye and issued his own apology.

“All I want to say is that I’m sorry for what happened,” he said. ​“I didn’t mean for anything to happen.”

“If I could take it back …” he trailed off and choked back tears. ​“I’m sorry.”

Brown grew up with a single mom on Kensington Street, his grandmother said. He helped take care of three younger siblings. Despite how he grew up, he turned out to be a ​“bright child” with potential, she said. He was a good basketball player and joined the Junior ROTC.

“He’s not a violent child,” she said. He would often visit her to drink tea on her Elm Street porch.

Teacher: I Trusted Him With My Life

Brown’s high school English teacher backed up her endorsement in a letter to the court, which Attorney Bansley read aloud.

Benjamin Boulton, a 17-year veteran teacher at Hillhouse High School, attested to Brown’s good moral character. He said he knew one of the other defendants in the case and would not ask for leniency for that young man.

Brown, however, had shown himself to be trustworthy, responsible and respectful, Boulton said. Like many of his classmates, Brown showed up to sophomore English class lagging behind in reading and writing skills. Unlike his classmates, Brown was willing to learn. He was ​“pleasant and respectful.”

When Brown learned that his teacher is into rock climbing, the two formed a friendship. Boulton agreed to take him rock climbing if Brown first did community service with a Ragged Mountain preservation group. Brown showed up early on a Saturday morning and spent the day doing hard labor, maintaining trails in the park.

Boulton took him rock climbing several times. He taught him to belay. That meant that several times, Brown ​“held the rope as I flew off the rock face. I literally had my life in his hands,” Boulton said.

The teacher said he brought his student to his house and trusted him completely. The boy proved himself responsible, too: One time, they were driving to a rock climbing cliff when the student told his teacher that he hadn’t gotten much sleep, because he was up all night feeding and taking care of his baby brother.

Brown is not a ​“cold, angry” type of man that he has come across over his years of teaching, Boulton said. He is not a ​“violent” man, he said. Instead, he called Brown a ​“weak-willed follower” who didn’t have the guts to stand up to his friends.

Boulton worried what might happen to his former student in jail, where prisoners protect themselves by joining gangs. He urged that Brown be placed in a facility with limited contact with the type of ​“criminals” who could steer him astray.

A woman from a Dwight area day care center seconded that call in a second letter. Delisa Tolson runs the Advance Childcare Center on Kensington Street, right next to where Brown grew up. She said she’s known Brown for eight years. He would rake the leaves and maintain the property. He’s not ​“mean” or ​“viciious,” she said. She agreed he’s a ​“follower” not a leader.

Victim Wishes For A ​“Full Life”

For her part, O’Sullivan continued to show a exceptional ​“capacity to forgive,” said prosecutor Waddock.

He read aloud from a letter she submitted to court. She described the profound effect the attack had on her financially, physically and emotionally.

“I don’t know if I can make it,” she wrote.

At the same time, she ​“feels sorry for the four men, who so stupidly wasted their lives by their conduct.”

“Despite my rage at their deed … I hope that they will learn that actions have consequences,” and that they go on to have ​“full lives,” she wrote.

Waddock said he is less optimistic than she is about Brown’s chance for rehabilitation.

Brown has testified that he doesn’t remember much about the night of the attack because he was drinking and was smoking what he thought was just marijuana but was really ​“wet,” or soaked in embalming fluid, Waddock said. 

Waddock said he finds that hard to believe. He said the event does appear to be premeditated because the four men carried gloves and a baseball bat. They ​“purposefully set out” looking for a home to break into, Waddock said.

Waddock said Brown needs to admit to himself that he does remember that night. Drugs are not an excuse for ​“cowardly behavior,” he said. ​“Unless and until” he admits that, he is likely to reoffend, Waddock reckoned.

The defense and prosecution asked the judge to implement the sentence they had agreed upon: 25 years, suspended after 18 1/2 in prison, with 3 years’ probation.

O’Sullivan didn’t say much in court. She declined comment to the press Thursday, except through a public letter thanking everyone who has helped her through difficult times.

Before sealing Brown’s fate, Judge Fasano (pictured) praised O’Sullivan for being ​“very gracious, even with respect to the young men who caused her this injury.” He said he hopes that Brown does realize the potential that the adults in his life believe he has.

He ordered Brown to perform 200 hours of community service for the elderly or for women after his prison sentence.

Brown’s mom, Taurice Brown, appeared in court with three children. She was too emotional to speak in court, Attorney Bansley said.

After court, Waller said she agrees her grandson deserves a lesser sentence because he did not participate directly in the attack.

“He was with the wrong people,” she contended. ​“He didn’t actually touch the lady.”