Peter Manfredonia Pleads Guilty To Murder Charge In 2020 Derby Slaying

MILFORD, CT — A week after pleading guilty to murder and home invasion charges following a grisly homicide in Willington over Memorial Day weekend in 2020, former UConn student Peter Manfredonia pleaded guilty Thursday to murder and first-degree kidnapping charges in connection with a second slaying that same weekend in Derby.

Manfredonia, 26, entered his plea in Milford Superior Court. At his sentencing April 19, he faces a total effective prison term of 55 years, according to Ansonia/Milford State’s Attorney Margaret E. Kelley.

He is slated to be sentenced in the Willington case April 20 in Rockville Superior Court. He also faces a 55-year prison term in that case; the two sentences are to run concurrently, Kelley said.

According to a police report, on the morning of May 22, 2020, Theodore DeMers, 62, was killed with "an edged weapon" in front of his Willington home after encountering Manfredonia and giving him a ride on an all-terrain vehicle. A neighbor, John Franco, 80, was seriously wounded in the attack, but recovered.

A motorcycle used by Manfredonia was later found abandoned at the end of a dead end road in Willington. At some point that weekend, a homeowner in the area reported a man fitting Manfredonia's description had broken into his house and held him against his will. On the morning of May 24, the invader stole the man's truck and some firearms, according to police.

Several hours later, Nicholas Eisele, 23, a classmate of Manfredonia at Newtown High School, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head in his Derby home. Eisele's girlfriend told authorities she was taken from the house by Manfredonia, who left in a Volkswagen Jetta. The car and woman were later found at a rest area off Interstate 80 in northern New Jersey, near the Pennsylvania border, police said.

Pennsylvania State Police reported Manfredonia was dropped off by a rideshare service at the Walmart in East Stroudsburg. Various sightings of him were reported in southern Pennsylvania, and after six days on the run, he was captured after taking an Uber to Hagerstown, Maryland, about 10 miles south of the Pennsylvania border, and emerging from a wooded area near a travel center, according to authorities.

According to judicial records, Manfrdonia has been in custody in lieu of bonds totaling $7 million since his June 2020 arrest.