The state Appellate Court has overturned the conviction of a man now serving a 12-year sentence for trying to burn down the Norwalk courthouse in 2013.
Despite DNA evidence presented to the jury during trial, the unanimous opinion reversed the 2016 burglary, attempted arson and tampering with evidence conviction of Stamford resident Joseph Stephenson for a lack of evidence, the justice’s 15-page opinion said. “In conclusion, the state presented no evidence at all from which the jury reasonably could have inferred that during the short period of time between the intruders breaking of the window and the arrival of state police on scene, the defendant entered the building through that window and went directly to the filing cabinet in another office and removed the files that were later discovered on the floor,” justices Michael Sheldon, William Bright and Socrates Mihalakos wrote in their decision.