A man already in jail in the killing of a man found in a burning car in Hartford is pleading guilty to killing three other people, all in Springfield, Massachusetts, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Calvin Roberson is set to plead guilty to manslaughter for the 2006 death of a woman working at a nail salon, a man found shot in the head in his car in 2016 and that man's brother, who was fatally shot while doing his laundry the next year, the Hampden District Attorney's Office said announced.
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Roberson, a 41-year-old from Waterbury, Connecticut, has been in federal custody over the death of Francisco Roman, a 31-year-old from Chicopee, Massachusetts, found in a burning car in Hartford the day after Christmas 2020, when he'd been reported missing. Prosecutors said the investigation into that killing, which involved FBI agents and federal prosecutors in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Georgia, revealed Roberson's involvement in the three unsolved killings in Springfield.
"Through the phenomenal investigative work done collectively by these partner agencies, we will give victims' families answers and justice as the defendant admits his guilt in taking their loved ones from them," Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni said in a statement.
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Roberson is pleading guilty to manslaughter on Wednesday, Gulluni's office said, explaining that the charge of manslaughter was selected so as not to conflict with the federal case, for which he could face a life sentence or the death penalty.
The first killing to which Roberson is pleading guilty is a 2006 armed robbery of a nail salon that turned deadly, prosecutors said. Roberson was one of three masked men who tied up Loan Nguyen, 30, and two others on Dec. 7 at Perfect Nails II on St. James Boulevard; she was found fatally shot in the head.
Roberson will also plead guilty to the shootings of the Yonaides Pichardo and his younger brother David Pichardo, according to prosecutors.
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Yonaides, 28, was found fatally shot in the head in his car on Sycamore Street on Oct. 11, 2016. Just over a year later, on Oct. 19, 2017, David, 27, was shot in the LaundroMax on Boston Road while doing his laundry, dying after being rushed to the hospital, prosecutors said.
