A Connecticut landlord and former GOP elected official will spend several decades in prison after admitting to killing her tenant.
A Stamford County jury convicted Ellen Wink, 64, of one count of murder and criminal lockout in late June.
On Tuesday, prosecutors announced that Superior Court Judge John F. Blawie had sentenced the defendant to 50 years in state prison.
Wink faced a maximum of 60 years in prison. She previously declined a plea deal that would have waived a trial in exchange for a 40-year sentence in the death of Kurt Lametta, 54.
Wink killed Lametta on Jan. 20, 2022, by repeatedly shooting him inside the property he rented from her on Nelson Avenue in Norwalk, a medium-sized city that is part of the New York City metropolitan area.
The woman’s factual responsibility was never in question. In her initial 911 call, Wink informed the dispatcher that the victim had lunged at her. During the police interview at the crime scene, Wink admitted to being the one with the gun. Throughout the trial, Wink maintained her claim of self-defense, claiming she was experiencing “extreme emotional disturbance” when she repeatedly squeezed the trigger that day.
However, jurors ultimately rejected the killer’s claims and sided with the state.
After a back-and-forth bond dispute, the defendant had been on pretrial release for quite some time. She was taken into custody following the guilty verdict.
Wink’s bond was originally set at $1 million, but was increased to $2.5 million after a different judge saw a cellphone video of the shooting, which the court described as “quite graphic.” The state had originally requested a $5 million bond, citing the video as proof positive that Wink committed murder and was never in danger.
That video would later prove useful during her trial, according to a courtroom report from regional cable channel News12 Connecticut.
Lametta took the footage himself; he secretly filmed his own death as Wink entered the house to remove items from the refrigerator in preparation for cleaning and selling the property. Lametta complained about the intrusion.
“That’s ridiculous,” he said in the video shown to jurors. “Every day you’re going to come and throw people’s stuff away?”
The man was holding his cellphone by his side at the time. Two shots are heard in quick succession.
“You bastard,” Wink exclaims after firing her weapon. Then she fires three more times. She then shouts at her victim.
“Get out!” The woman raged as the man’s sluggish body fell to the floor, along with the cellphone camera that had captured the murder. “Get out!” Get out! Get out of my house. “Get out of here.”
Wink continued to berate the dying man, saying, “You think I’m [expletive] with you?! Do you?! Do you think I am [expletive] with you?! Knock it off, you [expletive]. I will give you something nice! [Expletive] Off!”
News12 previously reported that Wink and Lametta’s landlord-tenant dispute had been simmering for months. Wink wanted Lametta out in August 2021 after a dispute with a third tenant. Then, in September 2021, Wink was arrested for allegedly locking Lametta out of the house and destroying his possessions. Next, in November 2021, Wink turned off Lametta’s heat and electricity, according to one police officer who testified at the trial.
Wink then conducted several internet searches related to guns and hollow point ammunition in January 2022, according to another investigator who testified. Ten days before Lametta was killed, Wink came across an article titled “Bang: 5 Most Deadly Bullets on the Planet.”
Wink, Norwalk’s Republican deputy registrar at the time of her arrest, was immediately fired after being charged.
