New London — Thanksgiving Day used to be a joyful, tradition-filled day in the Lindquist house.

“It was always a very cozy day,” said Eric Lindquist in the halls of New London Superior Court on Monday. “We’d come home from a cold morning hunting out in the woods and the fire was going, the turkey was in the oven and the parade was on TV.” 

Eric and his father, Kenneth Lindquist, would start the day with their father-son tradition of hunting for deer in Pachaug State Forest near their home in Griswold. They’d make it home in time to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, which Kenneth had watched since he was a child. Janet Lindquist would be busy in the kitchen, baking butternut squash casserole, string bean casserole and a homemade blueberry pie. A dog lover, she’d tune in to the TV for the The National Dog Show. 

After dinner, Eric and his half-sister Danielle Nichols, Kenneth’s daughter, said the family would always play a few rounds of the card game 31 before settling in to watch a movie. Kenneth would always fall asleep.

But now, the surviving Lindquists spend their holidays missing these traditions, mourning their family and trying, as hard as it is, to make it through the day. Nearly four years ago, just days before Christmas, Kenneth and Janet and their son Matthew were brutally murdered during a home invasion, burglary and arson that forever changed the family’s lives.

This year, they said, is especially hard. In the days leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, they are in the throes of a weeks-long trial for the man accused of killing their family after a plot to trade drugs for guns went horribly wrong. 

The holidays, said Eric, will never be the same.

“I will never enjoy it the way that I used to, it’s always just there eating at me,” he said. “Whoever I’m with, I try to be present, but it’s just always there in my mind no matter what, I’m thinking about what I would otherwise be doing.” 

Trial enters Day 7 

On the seventh day of the trial for Sergio Correa, a 30-year-old Hartford man who faces 14 charges in connection to the Lindquist murders, Judge Hunchu Kwak denied a motion for a mistrial filed by Correa’s defense team. 

In a motion filed on Sunday, defense attorneys Joseph Lopez and Corrie Ann Mainville called for a mistrial, claiming that Supervisory Assistant State's Attorney Stephen M. Carney undermined their integrity in front of the jury.

The accusation stemmed from Friday’s court proceedings, when Sergio’s adopted sister Ruth Correa, who is charged as an accomplice in the crimes, took the stand against her brother.

The defense peppered Ruth Correa with questions about a cooperative agreement she made with prosecutors in which she agreed to testify against her brother in exchange for a 40-year prison sentence, instead of the 180 years she faced.

Lopez, who spent hours attacking Ruth Correa’s credibility on Thursday and Friday, grilled the sister about being separated from her young daughter and son while in jail. The court had to take a recess when she broke down crying on the stand after Lopez asked how hard it was to be away from them.

Lopez asked her repeatedly whether she hoped for an even better deal from the state that would reunite her with her kids sooner, perhaps a lesser sentence or the possibility of probation. She said she hoped both things would happen. 

Later Friday, Carney asked Ruth Correa if the state had ever offered her a lesser sentence, to which she said no. He then asked if she knew that she wasn’t eligible for probation while facing murder charges. 

Lopez was upset by what he considered an insinuation from Carney that he misrepresented the law.

He objected to Carney’s question, and criticized Carney for allegedly smiling while asking it, saying it undermined his integrity as an attorney. 

His co-counsel Mainville said Monday that Carney’s questions “left the jury with the impression that he [Lopez] is doing something wrong.” 

While discussing the motion in court Monday morning before jurors were brought in, Carney said that he felt Lopez’s questioning was “a deliberate effort to mislead the witness and that is inappropriate.” He said he reminded Ruth Correa that she isn't eligible for probation, and hasn’t been offered a lesser sentence, because “state has obligation to make sure the true nature of the agreement is known to the jury.” 

He said he didn’t mean to smile while he said it, but said he does “have Irish eyes.” 

Judge Kwak said he did not think Carney meant any harm with his facial expressions Friday. 

“That’s his face,” said Kwak. “I don’t think he did it on purpose.” 

Jurors were brought in after Kwak denied the motion for a mistrial and heard from two witnesses, state police detectives Michael Hoagland and William Utermark. 

Hoagland described his initial investigation of the fire that reduced the Lindquists' home to rubble on Dec. 20, 2017, and talked in detail about the discovery of Janet and Kenneth Lindquist’s bodies amid the debris where their house had stood.

He described the “catastrophic damage” that was done to the structure, which consisted only of a few beams and the remnants of a chimney after the blaze was extinguished. He said that after finding three spots where the fire was sparked, they determined that it was “incendiary in nature,” meaning it was set intentionally. 

While questioning Utermark, Senior Assistant State's Attorney Thomas DeLillo went over several pieces of evidence recovered from the crime scene, including shell casings, car keys, a green T-shirt, and fragments of Janet Lindquists’s burned underwear and black floral pajama pants. 

The trial is scheduled to continue Tuesday morning in New London Superior Court, where major crimes are held.

t.hartz@theday.com