Immigrant slain
Roommate nabbed in stabbing death of Brazil native living in Danbury
By John Pirro
THE NEWS-TIMES


Danbury police officer John Dickinson guards the entrance to the International Bakery on East Liberty Street in Danbury on Sunday morning.
DANBURY -- A 30-year-old Danbury man is expected to be arraigned in Superior Court this morning after he allegedly stabbed his 33-year-old roommate to death in the kitchen of their East Liberty Street apartment.
Laudermilson Teixeira was taken into custody about 9:20 a.m. Sunday, seven hours after a neighbor called 911 to report an assault in the second-floor apartment near Portuguese Square, a section of the city populated by residents of Brazilian and Portuguese descent.

Teixeira, whose nickname "Cotinha" translates as "Short Legs," was found hiding in the basement of an apartment building on Pahquioque Avenue, less than 200 yards from the crime scene.

He was captured without incident, said Danbury police Lt. Edward Lopes.

Police on Sunday declined to release the name of the victim, but relatives and roommates identified him as Vanderly Rodrigues, 33, who came to Danbury from Governador Valadares, Brazil, about three years ago.

Police responded to the apartment above the International Bakery at 89 East Liberty St., after a neighbor called 911 at 2:11 a.m. to report someone had been assaulted with a knife. The victim, who sustained a single stab wound to the chest, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Including Rodrigues and Teixeira, six men lived in the apartment, one of a half-dozen above the International Bakery, a popular early morning restaurant where many in the neighborhood stop for coffee and breakfast before heading to work.

Bakery owner John Pinto said police and emergency vehicles "were all over the place" when he arrived to open for business about 5 a.m.

"I asked the police what was going on, but they wouldn't tell me anything," said Pinto, who's operated the bakery for the past five years.

Customers speculated all morning about the murder, although few had any real information.

"That's all people have been talking about," Pinto said. "They're saying, 'a short guy killed a tall guy.'"

Three of the other roommates were in the apartment at the time, although all told The News-Times that they were sleeping when Rodrigues was attacked. The men, who were interviewed through an interpreter, wouldn't give their names because the men said they in the country illegally, as were Rodrigues and Teixeira.

The roommates said, however, all six, including the victim and the alleged killer, got along well together, and they had no explanation for the stabbing. Teixeira, who lived there for about two years, and Rodrigues, who moved in a year ago, shared a bunk bed in the three-room apartment, with Teixeira taking the top bunk and Rodrigues using the bottom.

Both men had jobs with different companies that built stone walls, and Teixeira often went along when Rodrigues visited his sister, Maria das Gracas, and her daughter, at the sister's apartment on Belmont Circle.

"He seemed like a normal person. If there was something in his mind, I didn't see it," das Gracas said.

Rodrigues was one of six children, das Gracas said. Their parents and four other siblings still live in Brazil, she said.

Police interviewed witnesses throughout the morning, in some cases using Portuguese-language translators. Once the language barrier was broken, the investigation proceeded rapidly.

"Everybody was right out front with everything," said Salazar, and investigators quickly focused on Teixeira as their prime suspect.

Police were still looking for Teixeira at about 9:18 a.m., when they received a second 911 call advising them the man they were seeking was in the basement of the Pahquioque Avenue.

Salazar wouldn't name the tipster, but indicated Teixeira sought refuge in the house because he knew someone who lived there.

Teixeira was charged with murder and was being held at the Danbury jail on $1 million bail Sunday night.

Teixeira is the second Danbury resident to be charged with murder this year.

On Jan. 4, police arrested Panna Krom, a 17-year-old Danbury High School senior, and charged her with killing her newborn baby three days before the New Year.

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