Ailing Richard Crafts Seeks Release For Treatment

NEW HAVEN (AP) — A man sentenced to 50 years for killing his wife and disposing of her body in a wood chipper is seeking release for treatment of a liver disease.

Richard B. Crafts appeared in New Haven Superior Court Friday representing himself in a lawsuit against the state Department of Correction.

Crafts, a former airline pilot from Newtown, was sentenced in 1990 for killing his wife, Helle, freezing and dismembering her body and disposing of it in a wood chipper.

He is being held at the Connecticut Correctional Institution in Cheshire, where he claims he is denied evaluation and therapy for Hepatitis C, a virus that attacks the liver.

Crafts, 63, is seeking unconditional release for medical care. Failing that request, Crafts wants the court to order the Department of Correction to provide treatment that would be available if he were not jailed.

The University of Connecticut Health Center in 1997 said Crafts has evidence of Hepatitis C and recommended evaluation and further diagnosis and therapy, according to a medical record.

The state attorney general's office said the Department of Correction has provided all necessary medical care and will continue to do so. Crafts is undergoing medical evaluation and the Department of Correction will decide how best to help him once the evaluation is complete, a spokeswoman said.

Judge Jon C. Blue deferred a final decision for two months when a settlement will be negotiated, the case will be further postponed or a trial date scheduled.