Parrotta Not Guilty of Attempted Murder

Michael Parrotta, the former Byram man charged with stabbing his ex-wife with a sharpened screwdriver, was found not guilty of attempted murder but guilty of first degree assault during his trial at state Superior Court in Stamford Monday, according to a report in the CT Post.

Parrotta, who now resides in New London, is scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 19. He faces five to 20 years in prison on the first degree assault charge, according to the report.

Judge Richard Comerford, who made the ruling, reportedly denied state's Attorney James Bernardi’s request that Parrotta be held without bond. Bernardi reportedly said Parrotta's ex-wife is fearful of another incident.

As per published reports, the trial testimony included almost completely opposite accounts of what happened on the evening of April 2, 2009, with the that Parotta attacked her with the sharpened screwdriver while she was buckled in the driver's seat of her car, after she drove to his house to pick up their son; and — that it was in fact his ex-wife who attacked him with the screwdriver, which he wrestled away from her, then stabbed her as she reached for her purse on the back seat of her car, which contained a handgun, as was revealed during the trial proceedings.