Press Releases
05/15/2024
Jury Finds Branford Man Guilty of Multiple Counts of Threatening and Harassment
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(New Haven, CT) - John P. Doyle Jr., State’s Attorney for the Judicial District of New Haven, announced that a jury in New Haven Superior Court today found Samuel Foley, age 26, of Branford, guilty of eight (8) counts of Threatening in the First Degree with a Firearm in violation of Connecticut General Statutes § 53a-61aa(a)(3), five (5) counts of Threatening in the Second Degree in violation of Connecticut General Statutes § 53a-62(a)(2), five (5) counts of Harassment in the Second Degree (written communication) in violation of Connecticut General Statutes § 53a-183(a)(1), and eight (8) counts of Harassment in the Second Degree (telephone) in violation of Connecticut General Statutes § 53a-183(a)(2). The Honorable Peter L. Brown presided over the jury trial.
According to evidence introduced at trial, Samuel Foley threatened and harassed the three victims by way of phone calls and text messages over the course of a year, spanning May 2021 through May 2022. Throughout that time period, Foley sent hundreds of threatening text messages to the victims consisting of threats of murder, rape, sexual assault with guns and knives, child abduction, violent and sexually explicit pornographic images, the murder of the victims’ children, and shootings at the victims’ children’s schools. Foley called each victim hundreds of times and masked his phone number using Voiceover Internet Protocol spoofing applications. Foley was arrested by way of warrant along the Mexico/California border by the FBI on behalf of the State of Connecticut and extradited back to Connecticut.
The case was investigated by the Madison Police Department, Branford Police Department, and the Connecticut State Police, and was prosecuted by Assistant State’s Attorney Kathleen E. Morgan and Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney David J. Strollo, with assistance from Investigator Kerry Dalling, Inspectors Michael Mastropetre and Kevin Grenier, and Detective Samantha McCord from the Connecticut State Police.
Sentencing is scheduled for August 7, 2024 in New Haven Superior Court.