An East Coast drifter, who authorities say killed seven people in Connecticut in 2003 while driving a van he called the ‘murder mobile’, pleaded guilty on Friday in connection with six of the slayings.
William Devin Howell, 47, pleaded guilty to six counts of murder during a hearing in New Britain Superior Court on Friday. He is expected to be sentenced to 360 years in prison on November 17.
The Hampton, Virginia, native was previously convicted of manslaughter in the death of one victim, Nilsa Arizmendi, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The guilty pleas on Friday confirmed that Howell is the most prolific serial killer in Connecticut history – not including the killers in mass shootings like the Newtown school massacre.
William Devin Howell, 47 (pictured), who authorities say killed seven people in Connecticut in 2003 while driving a van he called the ‘murder mobile’, pleaded guilty on Friday in connection with six of the slayings. He’d already been serving a sentence for one of the murders
The guilty pleas on Friday confirmed that Howell is the most prolific serial killer in Connecticut history. The victims’ bodies were found behind a strip mall in New Britain (From left to right: victims Nilsa Arizmendi, 33, and Marilyn Gonzalez, 26)
The strip mall at 539 Hartford Road where the bodies of the seven victims were found
The bodies of all seven victims were found buried in a wooded area behind a strip mall at 539 Hartford Road in New Britain. Three bodies were found in 2007, and the other remains were discovered in 2015 when authorities went back to the site.
New Britain State’s Attorney Brian Preleski on Friday praised a task force of local, state and federal authorities that investigated the killings.
‘We express our sincere thanks to all who have worked so long and so hard on this difficult investigation, and we again express our deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of these innocent victims,’ Preleski said.
All seven victims disappeared in 2003, when Howell was mowing lawns and working other odd jobs in central Connecticut. They were identified as: Joyvaline Martinez, 24; Diane Cusack, 53; Mary Jane Menard, 40; Melanie Ruth Camilini, 29; Marilyn Gonzalez, 26; Danny Lee Whistnant, 44; and Arizmendi, 33.
Howell sexually assaulted three of the women and kept one of the bodies in his van for two weeks, sleeping next to the body and calling the victim his ‘baby’, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
All seven victims disappeared in 2003, when Howell was mowing lawns and working other odd jobs in central Connecticut. He allegedly sexually assaulted three of the women and kept one of the bodies in his van for two weeks, sleeping next to the body and calling the victim his ‘baby’ (From left to right: victims Mary Jane Menard, 40, and Joyvaline Martinez, 24)
Howell also told a cellmate ‘there was a monster inside of him that just came out’, described himself as a ‘sick ripper’ and called his van the ‘murder mobile’, according to the warrant.
When authorities searched Howell’s prison cell in 2015, they found notes referencing a serial killer memorabilia website and a newspaper article about Florida’s death penalty, court records show.
The seven killings topped the Connecticut body count of serial killer Michael Ross, who killed six women in eastern Connecticut and two in New York. He was executed in Connecticut in 2005. The state no longer employs the death penalty.
‘By pleading guilty today, William Howell wanted to spare the victims’ families further emotional pain through a lengthy and drawn out trial that would have taken several weeks, if not months. Avoiding a trial also saves the taxpayers of the state nearly $1,000,000,’ Howell’s attorneys, Jeffrey C Kestenband and William H Paetzold, said in a statement.