Legal troubles mounted Tuesday for a homeless man who allegedly stole electricity at the abandoned Salvation Army buildings on Chapel Street, where part of the dismembered body of a fellow homeless man was found last month.
Known to the homeless community he lived among as the “alpha dog” because of how he wielded authority at the squatters’ encampment in the Salvation Army buildings, the 46-year-old man appeared in state Superior Court Tuesday in ankle and wrist shackles, an orange jumpsuit and low-top black and white Chuck Taylor sneakers.
He has been in the Whalley Avenue lock-up on a $500,000 bond charged with third-degree burglary, sixth degree larceny and third degree criminal trespass since the end of July. In the hearing Tuesday, Alpha Dog was arraigned and Administrative Judge Brian T. Fischer set an additional bond of $100,000 for the charge of having violated his probation. He is slated to have another hearing Sept. 8.
The man and his criminal past became known to law enforcement when they found him asleep in one of the abandoned Salvation Army buildings that they were searching for evidence that might help them solve the mystery of what happened to a homeless man named Ray Roberson. The gruesome discovery of Roberson’s severed and decomposing legs and arms near State Street train station led to an investigation that brought officers, detectives and cadaver dogs to discover Alpha Dog in one building, and Roberson’s severed torso in another building.
Police questioned him about the Roberson case. He admitted that Ray Roberson had lived there with him, according to an affidavit. He denied having anything to do with Roberson’s murder, and is not at this point facing charges in connection to that case.
The man has a criminal history that dates back to 2010, when he was found guilty on three threatening charges in Waterbury, for which he received a one-year suspended sentence. In 2012, he was arrested on a sixth-degree larceny charge; he subsequently pleaded guilty and received a 13-month sentence.
He also pleaded guilty in 2014 to a felony weapons charge, for which he received a six-year sentence to be suspended after 13 months followed by three years of probation. Alpha Dog was released from MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield on Feb. 27 after shuttling nine times among different jails over a year and a half.
Is that his legal name, Alpha Dog? Really???