NEWTOWN, Conn. – A former Connecticut death row inmate convicted of fatally stabbing a pregnant woman over a drug debt has collapsed in prison and died.
The Correction Department says 57-year-old Robert Courchesne (KOHR'-chayne) was walking inside the Garner Correctional Center at about 10:35 a.m. Monday when he collapsed.
He was taken to Danbury Hospital and pronounced dead about an hour later.
Courchesne was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to death for killing Demetris Rodgers in Waterbury in 1998.
Rodgers was 8 ½ months pregnant, and the baby didn't survive. The death sentence was applied under a provision that allowed for capital punishment in cases where there were two or more victims.
The Connecticut Supreme Court overturned Courchesne's death penalty in 2010, finding the state hadn't proved the baby had been born alive.
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