A Connecticut man imprisoned for attacking a state representative as she was leaving a Muslim prayer service died in prison earlier this week, authorities said Tuesday.
Andrey Desmond, 32, was sentenced in June 2024 to five years in prison for his assault on Rep. Maryam Khan outside Hartford’s XL Center in June 2023.
Desmond died Monday at Garner Correctional Institute in Newton, the Hartford Courant reported. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital after guards found him unresponsive in his cell around 6:45 a.m. His cause and manner of death remain under investigation.
“As this matter is the subject of active Department of Correction and Connecticut State Police investigations, no additional information is being released at this time,” Corrections Department spokesman Andrius Banevicius told the Courant.
Desmond was arrested on June 28, 2023, after attacking Khan outside a service celebrating the the Islam holiday of Eid al-Adha. He approached Khan, told her he wanted to have sex with her, followed her, grabbed her face, demanded a kiss, put her in a chokehold and slammed her to the ground, police said.
Khan was with her children and her sister at the time of the attack.
Bystanders rushed to the scene and held Desmond until officers arrived. The following year, he pleaded guilty to attempted third-degree sexual assault, attempted first-degree strangulation and risk of injury to a minor.
Desmond was the second person to die within a week inside Connecticut prisons. Noe Taveras, 40, died by suicide at a different facility two days earlier, CT Insider reported.
