Daniel Zeleznik turned 24 Thursday, but he wasn’t celebrating.
The Shelton man took a plea deal at Superior Court in Milford that will see him sent to prison for five years in connection with the severe beating of another Shelton man in March.
“Tough day to plead, huh?” Judge Frank Iannotti asked Zeleznik in court. “Happy birthday.”
Zeleznik cracked a wry smile in response and said, “Thank you, your honor.”
On Thursday he pleaded guilty under the Alford doctrine to first-degree assault and admitted violating a 2011 probation.
Under Alford, a defendant does not admit all the facts in the case but concedes there is enough evidence for conviction at trial.
Authorities said Zeleznik and two other men — Jason Terry, 26, and Andrew O’Connell, 18 — assaulted Jason Chevrier, 32, at the corner of Coram Avenue and Kneen Street in the early morning hours of March 18.
The beating was so severe that doctors at Bridgeport Hospital had to use seven staples to close a gash to Chevrier’s head and he lost most of his top row of teeth, according to an arrest warrant affidavit in the case.
Several witnesses told police Chevrier had been in the area of Howe Avenue and Kneen Street that day and night and had also spent time in several apartments at the “corner block,” an apartment building at the corner of Howe Avenue and Brewster Lane.
Outside the building just before midnight, witnesses told police Chevrier got into an argument with Zeleznik and Terry. O’Connell, a relative of Zeleznik’s roommate, was also in the area.
The men told Chevrier to leave, witnesses said. Instead, he picked up a two-by-four he found nearby and starting swinging it while claiming he would call the “Latin Kings” to fight them.
But when the three men came out of the building with weapons, Chevrier dropped the two-by-four and ran away, up Kneen Street. The group caught up with him near the intersection of Kneen Street and Coram Avenue.
“They chased him up the road and really inflicted a serious beating on Mr. Chevrier,” Assistant State’s Attorney Charles Stango said in court Thursday.
Zeleznik knocked Chevrier to the ground and beat him with a small blunt object as O’Connell and Terry kicked him, the prosecutor said.
A plea agreement between Stango and Zeleznik’s lawyer, John Drapp, calls for a 10-year prison sentence in the case to be suspended after he serves five years in prison, followed by five years of probation.
Stango said he had talked with Chevrier Thursday, and that the man was “happy” to see the case resolved.
“He has no desire to be here to see either the plea or the sentencing for any of these three individuals,” he said.
Judge Iannotti continued the case to Jan. 4, 2013 for sentencing.
O’Connell pleaded guilty in the case last month and faces up to five years in prison at his sentencing, scheduled for Dec. 6. He’s been in jail since his arrest in March.
Terry pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree assault and was sentenced to serve five years behind bars. He has been behind bars since his arrest in April.
Zeleznik, who is free on $100,000 bond while the case is pending, spoke briefly with the Valley Indy outside the courtroom and said that while he disputes all of the allegations, he had no choice but to take the plea deal once O’Connell and Terry had done likewise.
He said O’Connell was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Andrew O’Connell is a good kid in a bad situation,” Zeleznik said. “I feel sorry for him. He shouldn’t be in jail right now.”
“Bad day to plea, yeah,” Zeleznik went on, in reference to his birthday. “Nothing I can do now, though.”
