A Murder Victim's Family, But "Not the Right One"

Outside the courtroom from where the Petit murder trial was taking place, Victoria Coward had her own murder story to tell. She knocked on the windows of three TV vans to try to tell it.

Coward’s son Tyler was shot to death at the Edgewood Park sundial at the age of 18. Like Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters Hayley and Michaela in Cheshire, Tyler was killed in 2007.

As with the Cheshire case, the proceedings for Tyler’s accused murder took place earlier this month at the Connecticut Superior Court on Church Street. It was the first day of November, and the defense had just rested its case in the trial of Steven Hayes, who would later be sentenced to death in the Petit killings.

In a small courtroom, away from the crowds, Jose Fuentes Pillich took a plea deal that will land him over 25 years in prison for killing Tyler Coward.

Pillich, a 25-year-old who moved to New Haven from Puerto Rico, was originally charged with murder and illegal gun possession. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge: first-degree manslaughter with a firearm. He agreed to a 40-year sentence, suspended after 30 years, plus three years of probation. He will be eligible for parole after 25 1/2 years, according to his attorney, public defender Joseph Lopez.

Tyler was Coward’s first-born, and her only son. She showed up for the hearing with other members of her family. The week before, prosecutor Stacey Haupt had already explained the proposed punishment. Coward said that while she didn’t like it—she wanted Pillich to be at least in his 60s when he emerges from prison—she supported the move.

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