
SEYMOUR — Two men broke into a Bank Street apartment in March and allegedly beat up a woman’s teenage sons over a $300 drug debt — an hour after a car they were in was pulled over for running a stop sign blocks away.
The details come from arrest warrants for the two suspects and their alleged getaway driver, who have pleaded not guilty in connection with the alleged home invasion.
All three suspects — Jacob Rodriguez, 21, of Seymour, Connor Schultz, 18, of Naugatuck, and Alexia Costante, 20, of Waterbury — are due in court this month.
According to the arrest warrants, police were called about 2:12 a.m. March 24 by a Bank Street woman who said that the suspects had come to her home when she was out, “beat up her children, and stolen their Playstation 4 game console.”
The woman’s two children, 16 and 18, told police they were home playing games with friends when Schultz and Rodriguez barged in to the home “unannounced and uninvited.”
Rodriguez used to live in the home, according to the warrant.
The two allegedly punched the 18-year-old victim, and said it was because their mother owed them money, “and since she wasn’t there, that they are going to get beat as a message to her.”
When the 16-year-old asked Rodriguez to stop, he instead started punching him in the face too.
At that point one of the boy’s friends stepped in and started hitting Rodriguez, telling him to leave.
Rodriguez then allegedly “ripped the Playstation from the TV stand, and stated that they could have it back when (their mother) gives them their money.”
When police were interviewing the victims’ mother, she said when Rodriguez was living at the apartment, one of his friends came over with a bag of Percocet pills to illegally sell.
Someone had taken the bag, and Rodriguez believed she was the culprit, she told police.
With police listening in, she called Rodriguez in an effort to arrange a meet-up.
Rodriguez allegedly said that he was “ready to go to war” and warned her to pay him back, but declined to set up a meeting before hanging up.
According to the warrant, Rodriguez and Schultz were passengers in a vehicle that had been stopped about an hour before the break-in for running a stop sign on the Route 8 south exit 22 ramp.
The driver was Costante, who later told police that she was friends with Schultz.
She said earlier that night he had sent her a Snapchat message telling her that he needed a ride and that it was an emergency.
She said she picked both the men up and drove them to Seymour, where, after getting a verbal warning for running the stop sign, they had her park across the street from the Walgreens and asked her to turn the lights off and leave the car running.
Several minutes later, they returned holding a Playstation, which they said that they took it over a drug debt and asked her to hold onto.
The next day, she told police she met the two at a bodega where she returned the Playstation.
Police arrested Costante May 7 on charges of conspiracy to commit home invasion, conspiracy to commit first-degree burglary, conspiracy to commit second-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit sixth-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit first-degree reckless endangerment, and conspiracy to commit second-degree criminal trespass.
She was released after posting a $10,000 bond and is scheduled to appear at Superior Court in Milford Sept. 21.
Police arrested Schultz May 14 on the same charges, as well as home invasion, second-degree assault, first-degree burglary, second-degree robbery, sixth-degree larceny, first-degree reckless endangerment, and second-degree criminal trespass.
He is being held on a $100,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 26.
Police arrested Rodriguez June 9 on the same charges as Schultz, as well as second-degree strangulation and first-degree threatening.
He is being held on a $250,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 28.