Groton Man Sentenced To 55 Years For 2008 Murder

A New London Superior Court Judge sentenced a Groton man to 55 years in jail on Tuesday for the 2008 stabbing murder of a 94-year-old man during a robbery in his home.

Sean Dowden, 23, pleaded guilty to murder on Jan. 31, on the eve of his trial.

Before sentencing Monday, he told the court he’d gone to the man’s house to confront him for molesting him when he was 9 years old.

“I guess I just lost it,” Dowden said.

“This is not the type of person that I am,” he said. “I’m really sorry for what I’ve done.”

The man was pistol whipped and stabbed with a scalpel and a kitchen knife.

Judge Patrick J. Clifford said he didn’t believe Dowden’s claim.  He said Dowden never said anything about being molested before and was trying to blame the victim.

“You beat him with the gun. You cut him with the scalpel. And when that wasn’t enough, you went to the kitchen…” he said.

He told Dowden: “I hope you do every day of the sentence I am about to give to you.”

Dowden’s mother and sister sat in the first two rows and wept during the proceedings.

His mother yelled at the judge, “Keep defending child molesters!” after the sentence was read. 

According to a report filed by Groton police, Dowden said he went to the man’s house on Gold Star Highway on April 9, 2008 intending to rob him. Dowden told police he brought a gun and scalpel with him, wore a bandanna and gloves, and pointed a gun at the man’s face, demanding money, the report said.

When the man refused, Dowden beat him the face with the handgun, stabbed him with the scalpel, then got a knife from the kitchen, the report said.  Dowden then stole the man’s money and car and left, the report said.

Police found Dowden on April 14, driving around in the man’s Cadillac. Officers identified the car’s owner, went to his house and discovered he’d been killed.

“There is nothing, nothing that can explain or justify what Mr. Dowden has done to another human being,” Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Lawrence Tytla told the court Monday.

He said the crime was “unfathomably brutal”, and that the elderly man had stab wounds all over his body before the wound to his neck that ultimately killed him.

“This wasn’t a quick death,” Tytla said.

 Tytla said the victim’s family was present in the courtroom but did not wish to address to the court.

Kevin Barrs, Dowden’s public defender, Dowden’s mother was in jail for a time, so his grandmother raised him for some of his life. Barrs said Dowden turned to drugs, and suffered from depression, alcohol abuse and anxiety attacks.

“He’s a human being. He’s not an animal,” Barrs said. “I know he feels horrible about what he’s done.”

 A woman who identified herself as Dowden’s mother, Carolyn, told the court: “He told me countless times he was sorry and I believe him.”

She said she wound up in a shelter with him when he was 13 years old, and he later helped care for two young children while she worked third-shift.

Judge Clifford said both of Dowden’s parents had been jailed, he had never finished high school, and he had been “ticketed” for aggressive behavior in jail.