Greenwich Time- A man who murdered a former friend's father because he believed the father and son were conspiring against him is back in prison after recently spending 10 days in a halfway house in Bridgeport.
In one of the most shocking killings in town history, former backcountry resident Andrew D. Wilson, now 51, gunned down John Peters on Aug. 5, 1993, while Peters was swimming laps in the pool behind his Ridgeview Avenue home. The 62-year-old Peters was the president of one of the world's largest advertising firms.
Wilson's release to a halfway house in Bridgeport on June 12 alarmed Peters' relatives, who said they were not aware of Wilson's release until after it occurred.
"We were shocked, we were shocked and concerned," a family spokesman said. "We were really relieved that they put him back in prison."
The family member spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for the family's safety.
It is unclear what events led Wilson, who is scheduled to be released from prison in 2014, to be sent to a halfway house, a facility intended to allow convicts to begin the process of reintegrating into society.
In an emailed family statement, relatives expressed their fear of what Wilson, who pleaded guilty to the crime in 1999, might do.
"We are very concerned that Wilson may continue to pose a threat to us and possibly others," the email read. "Before and during the trial, we heard Wilson openly state his intent to kill other members of our family. Wilson was diagnosed as suffering from delusional paranoid schizophrenia, an illness that doesn't just simply go away. We want to know who is going to make the judgment that he is no longer a threat to us or others."
The spokesman said the family was told by experts before the murder that Wilson would not act on his beliefs. They want to ensure another mistake isn't made, the statement said.
Andrius Banevicius, a state Department of Correction spokesman, said Wilson was released to the halfway house on June 12, but was returned to the Bridgeport Correctional Center on June 22. Four days later, he was returned to the Enfield Correctional Institution, where he is serving a 30-year sentence.
"He was returned without prejudice, so he didn't do anything wrong," Banevicius said. "Apparently there had been additional paperwork that had not been properly routed that needed to be reviewed."
Banevicius said he could not identify the paperwork in question.
Attempts to reach the Wilson family were unsuccessful.
After fatal shooting John Peters in 1993, Wilson immediately drove to Greenwich police headquarters and confessed to the killing, of which police were not yet aware.
Wilson, a former friend of Peters' son, Dirk, who served as an usher at the son's wedding, claimed Dirk had brainwashed him and blamed the family for his problems.
His mental condition so alarmed his sister, Julia, that she faxed a 14-page letter to the police departments in Madison, where Wilson was living at the time, and Greenwich on July 19, 1993.
In the letter, Julia Wilson wrote that her brother was dangerous to himself and others and that he had made specific, violent threats against Dirk and John Peters.
In 1995, two years after the killing, Wilson was convicted of murder and sentenced to 60 years in prison. A jury rejected his defense of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Two years later, the state's Supreme Court reversed Wilson's conviction and ordered a retrial because a judge improperly instructed jurors on the definition of insanity.
In October 1999, shortly before he was to go to trial a second time, Wilson pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Even though he has a 30-year sentence, Wilson will be released no later than March 2014.
Banevicius said under guidelines in place in 1993, prisoners were credited for good behavior.
Wilson could possibly be released even earlier, he said.
On March 16, 2004, the Town of Greenwich agreed to pay $4.5 million to Peters' widow Katrina Peters to settle her claim against the town for negligence in her husband's death.
The agreement came just hours before jurors were to begin deliberating in her lawsuit, which had gone to trial the month before.
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