Cases of two accomplices still pending

By Lloyd Garrison

On a Tuesday afternoon in March of last year, Jesse Diaz, 19, of Winsted and Ray Santana, 21, of the Bronx, N.Y., donned face masks and barged into the home at 314 Ashpohtag Rd. seeking drugs. The intrusion ended when the one of the victims, Thomas Wilkeson, rammed the get away car with another vehicle. On January 16, Diaz was sentenced in Litchfield Superior Court to five years in prison. Santana and Eric Castillo, 19, driver of the getaway car, were also jailed. Their cases are still pending. When Santana and Diaz burst into the house, Diaz assaulted Wilkeson with a gun as two other occupants, Crystal Marshall and Harrison Conway, looked on. There was a struggle and Wilkeson came up with the weapon. According to states prosecuting attorney David Shepack, the weapon turned out to be a B.B. gun. Wilkeson pursued the intruders in Marshall’s car and caught up with them on nearby Roughland Road. Marshall’s car flipped over upon impact. Wilkeson, Diaz and Castillo were slightly injured. Santana fled the scene on foot, but later turned himself in to police in Waterbury.