East Hartford man starts murder sentence at emotional hearing

Jan. 6—A man who had remained free on $2 million bond even after accepting a plea bargain and being convicted of murder and first-degree assault for shooting two men from behind in Hartford in late December 2018 began serving his 25-year prison term Thursday when an emotional sentencing hearing ended.

Abdul-Hakim Ali, 33, who listed an address on Burnside Avenue in East Hartford when he was arrested three days after the shootings, had agreed to the sentence when he entered his plea bargain in Hartford Superior Court.

But Thursday's hearing was the opportunity for the family of murder victim Ross Stone, 35, of West Hartford to tell Ali what he had taken from them.

Stu Winograd, Stone's uncle and godfather, said Stone "had an infectious smile when he was a young boy." That was one of several time Winograd's voice broke as he spoke or read what other members of his family had written about Stone.

"All Ross wanted was a family of his own to love," Winograd continued.

He said Stone's relationships with the two mothers of his children were "sometimes tumultuous, but his love for his children was boundless."

He recalled how Stone's eyes sparkled when he could buy school supplies for his oldest child, a daughter. Stone's twin sons were too young when he died to remember him, said his 93-year-old grandmother, Marilyn Winograd, in a letter read in court by Stu Winograd.

Stu didn't soft-pedal the problems in Stone's life, starting with troubles in his family or origin and continuing with poor choices as an adult that put him in prison, from which he was released in 2017.

"We were not on the best terms in the last few years of his life," Stu Winograd acknowledged. But he also said Stone seemed to be turning his life around before he was fatally shot on Garden Street in Hartford on the afternoon of Dec. 27, 2018.

In a letter read in court by Stu, Stone's mother, Wendy Mehr, asked Ali why he had committed the murder. But Ali didn't answer that question in his brief apology to his family and Stone's.

"May God forgive you," Mehr wrote.

Marilyn Winograd said in her letter that Stone's daughter "had a close and loving relationship with her dad."

She recalled how her grandson would meet his daughter at the end of the school day and walk her home.

"Twenty-five years does not punish for murder," she wrote.

Shot along with Stone was Elijah Adorno, of Hartford, who would now be around 29. He suffered several gunshot wounds to his stomach and lower extremities but survived. Ali was convicted of first-degree assault for shooting Adorno and received a 10-year prison sentence, to run concurrent with the 25-year sentence for the Stone murder.

When his case was first called, Ali hugged family members before walking to the well of the courtroom, where a judicial marshal would handcuff him as soon as the judge pronounced the first prison sentence. One woman in his family group was on the verge of tears throughout the sentencing and wept openly as he was led into the courthouse lockup.

Before imposing the sentences, Judge David P. Gold spoke of the two families in the courtroom and said, "Everybody's life has been forever changed. If only people would contemplate the consequences, maybe society would change."

As to the members of Stone's family who spoke, the judge told Ali, "These people didn't ask for revenge. What they asked for is for you to think."

For updates on Glastonbury, and recent crime and courts coverage in North-Central Connecticut, follow Alex Wood on Twitter: @AlexWoodJI1, Facebook: Alex Wood, and Instagram: @AlexWoodJI.

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