Manfredonia Charged With Felony Murder In Derby Slaying

NEWTOWN, CT — Murder, felony murder and other charges have been filed against former University of Connecticut student Peter Manfredonia in connection with a slaying in Derby over Memorial Day weekend, the second homicide he is accused of carrying out in a 48-hour period.

Manfredonia, 23, was also charged on a warrant Monday morning with first-degree kidnapping with a firearm, first-degree robbery with a deadly weapon, home invasion and carrying a pistol without a permit. Bail on the new charges was set at $5 million.

Nicholas Eisele, 23, a school acquaintance of Manfredonia from Newtown, was shot in the head inside his Derby apartment on Roosevelt Drive on May 24. He was pronounced dead at the scene and an autopsy by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined his death was a homicide, according to an affidavit supporting Manfredonia's arrest.

Eisele's girlfriend was missing from the apartment, as was her black 2016 Volkswagen Jetta. Surveillance camera footage from a nearby business showed a man, believed to be Manfredonia, entering the apartment around 5:52 a.m. The same man was seen leaving with a woman and entering the Jetta around 6 a.m.; the woman entered the driver's side, according to the affidavit.

The woman later told investigators Manfredonia demanded her car keys, but then decided to take her with him. She said he had a small black handgun and took about $2,000 in cash from the apartment. She said she was intentionally "driving erratically in an attempt to get stopped by police," but Manfredonia ordered her "not to get pulled over because he didn't want to kill her," according to the affidavit.

During the car ride, the woman said Manfredonia talked about a homicide he had committed in Willington two days earlier, in which he used a samurai sword to kill Theodore DeMers, 62, and seriously injure an 80-year-old neighbor. He also spoke of a home invasion, also in Willington, during which he held a 74-year-old man hostage in his basement for nearly 24 hours before stealing the man's pickup truck and some weapons, according to the affidavit.

The woman and her car were found at a truck stop in Columbia, New Jersey, near the Pennsylvania border. Manfredonia caught an Uber ride and continued evading for six days until he was captured May 27 at a Pilot gas station in Hagerstown, Maryland, according to the affidavit.

Manfredonia was already being held at the Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown in lieu of a $7 million bond in connection with murder, home invasion and other charges stemming from the Willington case.