FOI Hearing Concludes In Connection With Joyce Stochmal Murder

By Jack Kramer, Correspondent

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT – Two days of testimony in front of the Freedom of Information Commission in which the family of a teenage Valley girl murdered decades ago are seeking the convicted killer’s prison records wrapped up Thursday.

Marianne Stochmal Heffernan, on the “Justice for Joyce” Stochmal Facebook said there was “90 minutes of testimony and cross examination.”

Heffernan added: “While I feel it went well in terms of demonstrating that the records I requested are usually provided without objection, I am still thinking about the way my request was stymied from the start.”

Heffernan has been asking the FOI, and hearing officer Valicia Harmon, information on the prison records of David Weinberg, who was recently released after serving 26 years for the killing in 1984 of 19-year-old Joyce Stochmal, Heffernan’s sister.

Heffernan believes the prison records are “public records” and her family is entitled to see what type of prisoner Weinberg was while behind bars.

After the hearing was over, Heffernan reiterated she felt things went well and is hoping the full FOI will rule on her request as soon as possible.

Weinberg was released after serving 26 years of a 60-year life sentence.

According to testimony in his trial, Weinberg, now 58, drove by Joyce Stochmal as she was walking along Route 188 in Seymour to her job at a dog kennel. Police said he grabbed her and took to an area beneath Steel Bridge in Newtown, where he stabbed her 17 times before leaving her body in Lake Zoar.

Her body was found three days later.