LOCAL

Teen: Sullivan confessed to killing in letter

Staff Writer
Fosters Daily Democrat

NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — A Connecticut man accused of killing his girlfriend's mother two years ago confessed to the crime in a letter to another girl he wrote to from jail, the girl testified.

William Sullivan Jr., 20, also spoke on the phone with Monique Teal, 16, of Manchester, while he was awaiting trial, Teal testified in Hillsborough County Superior Court on Tuesday.

Teal, who started calling herself Monique Sullivan in her letters and agreed to a date to marry Sullivan, testified that her mother told him not to call anymore.

"He just laughed about it," she said. "He said that no matter what my mom would say or do that nothing could keep us away from each other."

Sullivan confessed to the killing in one of his letters to her, Teal testified, although she didn't read from the letter in court. She said she followed Sullivan's instructions and threw that letter away.

Sullivan, of Willimantic, Conn., is charged with first-degree murder in the 2003 beating and stabbing death of Jeanne Dominico. Prosecutors say Sullivan and former girlfriend Nicole Kasinskas plotted to kill her mother because they wanted to live together and she opposed it.

Sulllivan's lawyers say he was insane when Dominico was killed.

"He told me what her last words were," Teal said of Sullivan's letter. "He said they were, 'I'm done."'

Teal said Sullivan described the struggle with Dominico, writing that at one point Dominico had a knife and fought back vigorously. "She was pleading for her life," Teal said. "But he realized he was already going to get in trouble, so he finished."

Kasinskas, now 18, has pleaded guilty to a reduced, second-degree murder charge and may serve as little as 35 years in exchange for testifying against Sullivan.

During her testimony, Kasinskas described how her intense, obsessive relationship with Sullivan blossomed soon after they struck up a correspondence over the Internet.

Kasinskas said she couldn't recall how or when the idea first came up, but she described Sullivan as the driving force, coming up with plans to poison her mother's coffee, set fire to her bedroom, blow up the house and then beat her to death, making it look as though someone had broken into the house.

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Information from: The Telegraph, http://www.nashuatelegraph.com