A Connecticut man who stabbed his neighbor to death pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity on Wednesday.
Sebastian Andrews, 32, has been charged with murder for the March 2023 killing of Arinzechukwu “Red” Ukachukwu, 39, in Wilton.
Andrews’ insanity plea was entered after psychological evaluations from specialists hired by the state and by Andrews’ defense team. Investigators have described the killing as a random act of violence with no known motive.
A three-day hearing from April 1-3 will determine Andrews’ fate, the Norwalk Hour reported. Defense attorneys will argue he was suffering from “mental disease or defect” at the time he killed Ukachukwu, whose family was disappointed in Wednesday’s plea.
“I feel it was a premeditated murder,” the victim’s sister, Princess Ukachukwu, told the Hour. “A white man kills a black man, and now he’s able to get off.”
Andrews walked to his next-door neighbor’s house on March 21, 2023, and confronted Ukachukwu in the driveway before stabbing him and dragging him into the garage, authorities said. Andrews’ father spotted his son’s attack from a window and called the cops, according to a police report.
When Andrews first spoke with police, he claimed he acted in self-defense, but investigators said his story didn’t match the evidence.
Ukachukwu had just moved from Brooklyn to Wilton months earlier, heading out for what he hoped was a peaceful life in the suburbs to raise his 2-year-old son, Golden Gray, with his wife, Alisha Lager.