Shelton Man Gets 25 Years For Killing Wife

MILFORD —  A Shelton man convicted of shooting his wife to death in their home in 2015 spoke publicly for the first time Tuesday at his sentencing in the case — and said he hopes to rejoin his family some day.

He’ll have to serve a 25-year prison sentence first.

“I will have hope to be with my family someday,” the man, Thomas Infante, told Judge Frank Iannotti while crying. ​“I want to say how sorry I am to everybody that any of this ever happened. I have to live with this every day I wake up every morning.”

His comments came toward the end of an emotional 40-minute sentencing during which his daughter tearfully told the judge that despite the heartbreak of her father killing her mother, she ​“would do anything to have that man walk me down the aisle when I get married.”

“I understand that he needs to pay for what he did, and I’m OK with that,” Infante’s daughter said. ​“But if you knew him personally as I did, you would know he’s not a bad person.”

Infante, 55, pleaded guilty in April to shooting his wife, Lisa, during an argument in their Hickory Lane home Sept. 27, 2015.

He then fled the home, where two of his sons were at the time of the killing.

He pleaded guilty in April to first-degree manslaughter with a firearm ​“while under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance.”

At Superior Court in Milford Tuesday, Infante’s daughter said her mother had asked for a divorce after beginning an affair.

A plea deal in the case called for the judge to hand down a 40-year prison sentence to be suspended after 25 years.

Lisa Infante, 53 at the time of her killing, was a mother of four and an active volunteer with Echo Hose Ambulance in Shelton. 

Two of the couple’s sons were minors at the time of the killing, and were taken in by Lisa’s sister Lynne, who spoke in court Tuesday while standing next to a large portrait depicting Lisa in her ambulance company uniform. 

The couple’s other two children were adults at the time of their mother’s death. A protective order issued Tuesday bars Infante from having any contact with his youngest child.

Lisa’s sister told the judge the relationship between her sister and Infante had been strained as far back as she could remember.

She said her first memories of Infante were from about 40 years ago, watching him use a rifle to shoot bullfrogs he had strung alone a clothesline — then stick firecrackers in their mouths and throw them in the air to watch them explode. 

“These are only some of the violent and inhumane acts I had witnessed,” she said.

The family would avoid holiday gatherings and functions because of their ​“toxic, dysfunctional lifestyle,” she said.

She told the judge her nephew called her the night of Lisa’s killing — after discovering his mother’s body in the family’s home.

“He said to me ​‘It was mommy and she needed help,’” she said. ​“The defendant executed my sister with a bullet to the back of her head. She was found in her bedroom in the prayer position.”

In a perfect world, she said, Infante would be brought to trial and go to prison for the rest of his life.

But she understood a plea deal in the case would spare his children the trauma of having to testify in court.

Later, Infante’s daughter sobbed as she told Judge Iannotti of her conflicting feelings.

“In one split-second, I got my heart broken,” she said. ​“My mother, my house, my entire family was taken from me.”

Still, she said, she has kept in touch with her father, despite the disbelief of friends who ask her how she could.

“People don’t understand because they don’t know him,” Infante’s daughter said. ​“They don’t know his past behavior leading up to what happened. All they know is what they see on the news.”

She told the judge how her father would bring her Valentine’s Day presents, drove her and her brothers around on a tractor with a beaming smile on his face, and dreamed of helping special needs children.

Still, she said, he ​“was no angel” — and the couple stayed in their abusive relationship only for the sake of their children.

“I don’t remember the last time my parents really got along,” she said.

As the relationship disintegrated, she said, Infante became depressed. She speculated the killing might have been a side-effect of anti-depressants which he was prescribed.

“My father would have never done any of this on a clear mind,” she said. ​“But according to society and outsiders, my dad is a monster.”

After apologizing to his family, Infante thanked his sister-in-law for taking in two of his children since the killing.

He vowed to help others while behind bars, and said he’s gotten involved in several programs at Northern Correctional Institution, where he’s been in custody since his arrest days after the shooting.

He said he will rely on his religious faith to help him and his family.

“I know God will get us through,” he said. ​“He’s brought me this far. He’ll bring me the rest of the way.”

Judge Iannotti thanked the family members for their ​“eloquent” testimonies.

He said he understood the ​“anger, rage, and depression” Infante felt as his marriage disintegrated.

“But people for the most part don’t take the life of their partner because they’re distraught that their life is falling apart,” Judge Iannotti pointed out. 

“It still remains inconceivable to me you couldn’t put the photographs of your four children in your head and understand above all else that they were the most important things in the world, not only to you, but to their mother,” the judge said.

He said Infante clearly had a special relationship with his daughter.

“No matter what else is going on in your life, sir, what could be greater than that?” the judge said. ​“That could never have been taken away from you. The only person that could have taken that away was you, and you’ve successfully achieved that.”

“I’m sorry,” Infante interjected.

“Don’t say you’re sorry to me,” the judge replied. ​“You have a lot of other people that you have to be sorry to.”