Man accused of killing ex-mother-in-law with bat in Trumbull rejects plea offer, will go to trial
Ylli Shtopaku, 46, appeared in court in Bridgeport on Thursday, where he turned down a deal that called for a 40-year sentence.
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on The Norwalk man accused of killing his former mother-in-law with a baseball bat has rejected the prosecution’s offer and instead will take his chances at trial.
Ylli Shtopaku, 46, appeared in court in Bridgeport Thursday, where he turned down a deal that called for a 40-year sentence followed by 10 years of special parole in exchange for pleading guilty to the murder of 70-year-old Lida Shape, his ex-wife’s mother. Now, Shtopaku faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted at trial.
“The decision was relatively easy to make,” said Shtopaku’s attorney Ioannis Kaloidis after court. “The offer was 40 years. He would’ve spent the rest of his life in jail, so there's no incentive to resolve a case, in my eyes, on something like that.”
Shape died on April 28 after police said Shtopaku beat her with a bat for over a minute outside the clubhouse at Ten Trumbull, a luxury apartment complex on Oakview Drive where Shape lived with her daughter and the former couple’s two kids—Shape’s grandsons.
“This was a heinous crime that the family still suffers from every single day,” stated attorney Frank Riccio, who represents Shape’s daughter and other loved ones.
Riccio told News 12 they don’t want to endure the pain of a public trial and had hopes Shtopaku would take the offer.
“The defendant is forcing the family to have to live this again,” Riccio said outside the courthouse.
“That can all be avoided if the offer is what we would consider to be reasonable, but we don't control the offer,” countered Kaloidis.
When asked what he considers reasonable, Kaloidis responded, “Something that’s not a life sentence.”
According to the police report, security cameras captured Shtopaku repeatedly hitting Shape with a baseball bat for 92 seconds. He was still on scene when officers responded that afternoon, and according to their report, he spontaneously said, "She tried to kill me for all my life, so I did it today."
Police said Shtopaku waived his rights and voluntarily spoke with investigators following his arrest. According to the report, he told them he was at the food court in the Trumbull Mall when he spotted his former mother-in-law with an out-of-state relative. He then confessed to following the women back to Shape’s apartment complex, where an Uber dropped them in front of the clubhouse, the report said.
Shtopaku admitted he tried to confront Shape, and when both women kept walking, he grabbed a bat from the trunk of his car and went after his ex-mother-in-law, according to the report. He told police, “he blames his ex-mother-in-law for his divorce, losing his house in Monroe, and the fact that he currently does not have money,” the report stated.
“We anticipate a defense of extreme emotional disturbance at trial,” Kaloidis told News 12 on Thursday.
Riccio said he’s seen nothing that supports that.
“This was a cold-blooded, calculated murder, and no doctor is going to come in and say anything different. So, he takes his chances at trial, and I think that it's to his peril,” Riccio stated.
There’s no date yet for the trial, but the judge said it won’t be before the end of summer. Kaloidis said it could take a year before it's underway.
Shtopaku is being held on a $3 million bond. He's been barred from contact with Shape's family, including his two sons, since his arrest.
PRIOR COVERAGE: Plea offer made to murder suspect accused of beating ex-mother-in-law with bat in Trumbull
Man confessed to ‘viciously’ killing ex-mother-in-law with bat, Trumbull police say
