CT man pleads guilty to manslaughter in fatal overdose of CCSU student

A Connecticut man has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and narcotics charges after police say he sold fentanyl to a Central Connecticut State University student who died of an overdose in February 2023.

Brandon Maynard, 23, of Danbury, took a plea deal during a virtual hearing in New Britain Superior Court that will send him to prison for five years.

Based on the charges he faces, he could have been exposed to as many as 25 years behind bars had he gone to trial, Judge Maureen Keegan noted.

During the proceeding, Maynard pleaded guilty to one count each of sale of a narcotic substance and second-degree manslaughter in connection with the death of 21-year-old Saradina “Sara” Redman, who was found unresponsive in the university’s F. Don James Residence Hall on Feb. 26, 2023, shortly before 10 a.m. She was taken to the Hospital of Central Connecticut where she was pronounced dead.

Maynard this week initially entered his pleas under the Alford doctrine, which his attorney, East Hartford-based lawyer Brian Woolf, said stemmed from autopsy results that showed Redman died of combined effects of three different drugs and that it was not necessarily the fentanyl alone that Maynard sold her that led to her death.

After discussing it further with Keegan, Maynard agreed to enter a “straight guilty plea.”

The plea deal he accepted includes 12 years in prison, which will be suspended after Maynard serves five years behind bars, and five years of probation.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, investigators with the CCSU Police Department were able to charge Maynard in Redman’s death after unearthing text message correspondences on her phone with a contact saved as “Brandon” the night before she died. The contact sent a message shortly before 9:30 p.m. saying he was “headed there now” before telling her he was “pullin (sic) up” about 15 minutes later, the warrant affidavit said.

Detectives noted in the warrant affidavit that the messages were consistent with video surveillance footage that showed Redman waited in the lobby of her residence hall for a few minutes before approaching a motorist who pulled outside of the building at about 9:45 p.m.

Shortly thereafter, Redman sent a text message to the same contact and asked  “which one is the fent,” the warrant affidavit said. Investigators were able to tie the phone number attached to the contact to Maynard, as authorities with the Hartford Police Department had coordinated a controlled narcotics purchase with him in April 2023.

Police also noted that they found drug paraphernalia at the scene where emergency crews discovered Redman, a senior from Indonesia who was studying bio-molecular science.

An autopsy would show her death was an accident caused by the combined effects of fentanyl, cocaine and olanzapine, according to the warrant affidavit.

During the hearing Tuesday, Redman’s aunt who resides in Connecticut gave an emotional victim impact statement describing the loss and how it has affected her as well as the girl’s parents and other family back in Indonesia.

Redman, her aunt said, came to the United States in 2019 and had aspirations of being a doctor. She learned English, was taught how to drive a stick-shift car and got a job.

“She loved science,” the aunt said. “She loved school.”

The village where Redman was born and raised is made up of families that have known each for several generations.

“She will not be a part of that family,” her aunt said.

“We’re left with grief, with sadness, with many fond memories.”

“Her spirit continues to live in Indonesia,” the aunt said. “Her body will always remain here.”

According to Redman’s aunt, her parents did not want “revenge” through the judicial system, but only justice. She said they hold no ill-will toward Maynard and hope he “will find a better life.”

Maynard is being held on $150,000 bond while he awaits sentencing, which has been scheduled for Sept. 17.

He has multiple pending cases in Hartford Superior Court, including one involving narcotics charges. Woolf said he and prosecutors have reached a disposition in those matters, though he did not elaborate.