Jailhouse informants tell of alleged confessions

By Karen Florin

Publication: The Day
Published 02/19/2010 12:00 AM
Updated 02/19/2010 12:52 AM
Details vary, but all say Leniart bragged about body's disposal

The testimony of jailhouse informants at the murder trial of George M. Leniart has been consistent about one thing - Leniart's confidence that state police would not charge him because they would never find the body of teenager April Dawn Pennington.

Troopers did charge Leniart with the murder in 2008, and the state is relying on the prison informants in the "no-body" murder trial taking place in New London Superior Court this month. April Pennington, 15, sneaked out of her family's Montville home on May 29, 1996, and they never saw her again.

Each of the convicted felons who took the witness stand to implicate Leniart in the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of the teen gave a slightly different version of Leniart's alleged prison confessions. They all said, however, that Leniart boasted he would never be charged because state police would not find the girl's body.

Kenneth S. Buckingham, an accused serial bank robber who testified Thursday, said Leniart was "pretty cool" when he talked about the state police "being after him" for a murder case.

"He said, 'No body, no crime,' '' Buckingham testified.

Leniart told him, when the two of them were housed together at Corrigan Correctional Institution, that he had accidentally killed April by choking her while they were having sex, Buckingham testified.

"He made reference that he dismembered her and put her in lobster pots," Buckingham said. Leniart said he dumped the body in Long Island Sound, Buckingham said.

Zee Y. Ching Jr., who has a history of drug crimes, also testified Thursday, saying Leniart was "kind of bragging" about hiding the girl's body when the two shared a cell at Corrigan in 2007.

"He thought the state police were a bunch of idiots and they were tearing up his property and they couldn't find her and she wasn't there," Ching said.

In Ching's version, Leniart said he and a younger friend got a girl drunk and raped her on a boat.

Ching said Leniart told him the girl started "flipping out" on the way back to the boat and he decided he would have to "do her."

"He said the younger man refused to cooperate, so he did it himself and hid the body," Ching said. Leniart told him he hid her body in a well at Wilson's Marina and later dumped it in Long Island Sound.

Michael Douton, who is serving a six-year sentence for three convictions of driving under the influence, testified Wednesday that Leniart referenced the murder when the two met up in a holding area at Corrigan in May 2009. Douton said Leniart told him April's body was "in the river" and pointed in the direction of the Mohegan Sun casino and the Thames River.

"He told me they would never convict him because they would never find the body," Douton said. Douton said he was amazed by what Leniart said and that he seemed "very confident."

Also Thursday, defense attorney Norman A. Pattis moved for a mistrial when Ching testified that Leniart asked him whether he should kill the man who was with him on the night April disappeared. He was presumably talking about Patrick "PJ" Allain, who has testified that he and Leniart picked up the girl after she sneaked out of her house, drank and smoked marijuana with her and raped her.

Pattis objected to the testimony, saying the state sneaked into evidence a statement that Leniart was speculating about killing Allain. Prosecutor Stephen M. Carney said the state is not alleging that Leniart took any steps to kill Allain, and that this was "just a conversation that took place in Corrigan back in 2007." Judge Barbara B. Jongbloed denied the mistrial motion.

Pattis again moved for a mistrial when Buckingham used the term "ripper" or rapist to refer to Leniart. Jongbloed denied the motion but agreed to strike the "ripper" testimony from the record.

The trial resumes today.

k.florin@theday.com

Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy