Man charged with fraud in Wolcott woman’s death: police – NBC Connecticut

A man is facing fraud charges in connection with the untimely death of a woman in Wolcott earlier this year, police said.

According to police, 37-year-old Alexandra Standish was hit by a car in a driveway on Central Avenue early on the morning of February 10.

Authorities said Edward Pratte, 41, of Southington, was arrested Friday in Meriden on a warrant issued by Wolcott police. Investigators said the charges are related to Standish’s death.

Back in April, Standish’s agent filed a fraud complaint with Wolcott police. Officials said he received a statement showing several charges on Standish’s credit card, which had been requested to be canceled after her death.

Upon investigating where the purchases were made and what items were purchased, police concluded that Pratte had used the credit card to purchase custom parts for his own car and that of his girlfriend and had the items delivered to his home in Southington.

Investigators said Pratte and Standish’s boyfriend, Brandon Hamel, also unexpectedly showed up at the office where she kept her accounts two days after Standish’s death to file a claim for Standish’s death benefit, reportedly showing an inauthentic copy of a death certificate.

Pratte is facing charges including illegal use of a payment card, credit card fraud and theft. He was held on $5,000 self-posted bail and is due in court on June 25. Police did not say how Pratte knew Standish.

During the investigation into Standish’s death in February, police learned that Hamel had taken Standish to Bristol Hospital for treatment of serious internal and external injuries and that she later died.

According to Wolcott police, Hamel told Bristol police that she had been injured in her home, but he did not cooperate with the information that led to Standish’s death.

Wolcott police said their investigation, which included reviewing footage from a Ring camera, revealed that Standish, Hamel and a close friend, 31-year-old James Sadlowski of Meriden, were drinking alcoholic beverages at a local restaurant until about 1 a.m.

The three then drove back to the house in two separate vehicles, police said. As Sadlowski backed out of the driveway, he struck Standish, who was standing behind his pickup truck, investigators added.

According to police, Standish was lying unconscious in the driveway and the two men had not called 911. There was also reportedly a long delay before they attempted to help her.

The two men lifted Standish and placed her in Hamel’s vehicle, and he took her to Bristol Hospital, police said. Sadlowski left the car and walked to a motel in Meriden, authorities added.

According to police, surveillance video at the hospital showed that Hamel was in no hurry to receive care. They said they also saw no urgency in asking hospital staff to remove her from the vehicle. She later succumbed to her injuries.

Police Chief Edward Stephens said they had been called to the Central Avenue home several times in the past for domestic incidents. He said a restraining order barring Hamel from contacting Standish had only been lifted the day before the incident.

“We initially thought that Hamel, the boyfriend with whom she had been having domestic violence, had just been arrested in the house a week earlier,” Stephens said. “He was the suspect from the beginning.”

In April, Sadlowski was charged with second-degree manslaughter, intentional cruelty to persons, failure to renew vehicle registration, illegal operation of a motor vehicle while license is suspended, illegal operation of a motor vehicle without insurance and evading responsibility resulting in death.

Hamel suffered serious injuries in a motorcycle accident a few weeks after the incident.

Police had previously stated that Hamel would be arrested after his release and charged with obstructing a police investigation and intentional cruelty. It is unclear whether he was arrested on these charges.