Jury: Branford Man Guilty Of Numerous Threatening, Harassment Charges

NEW HAVEN, CT — A New Haven Superior Court jury today found a 26-year-old Branford man guilty of multiple counts of threatening and harassment, John P. Doyle Jr., State’s Attorney for the Judicial District of New Haven, announced.

Samuel Foley was found guilty of eight counts of first-degree threatening with a firearm, five counts of second-degree threatening, five counts of second-degree harassment via written communication and eight counts of second-degree harassment via telephone.

According to Doyle, and evidence introduced at trial, Foley threatened and harassed three victims by way of phone calls and text messages over the course of a year, spanning May 2021 through May 2022.

"Throughout that time period, Foley sent hundreds of threatening text messages to the victims consisting of threats of murder, rape, sexual assault with guns and knives, child abduction, violent and sexually explicit pornographic images, the murder of the victims’ children, and shootings at the victims’ children’s schools," Doyle said. "Foley called each victim hundreds of times and masked his phone number using Voiceover Internet Protocol spoofing applications. Foley was arrested by way of warrant along the Mexico/California border by the FBI on behalf of the State of Connecticut and extradited back to Connecticut."

Foley is set to be sentenced Aug. 7.

The case was investigated by the Madison and Branford police departments, and Connecticut State Police. It was prosecuted by Assistant State’s Attorney Kathleen E. Morgan and Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney David J. Strollo, with assistance from Investigator Kerry Dalling, Inspectors Michael Mastropetre and Kevin Grenier, and Detective Samantha McCord from the Connecticut State Police.