Police: Suspect Showed Interest in Serial Killer Memorabilia

Authorities searched the prison cell of a convicted killer charged with six more slayings and found notes referencing a serial killer memorabilia website and a newspaper article about Florida's death penalty, court records show.

The items were seized this year from William Devin Howell's cell at Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown, according to search warrant affidavits filed in court.

Prison guards found a notebook Howell kept that included references to a website purporting to sell items that belonged to notorious killers, according to the affidavits. A watercolor painting attributed to Gary Gilmore and a John Dillinger death mask were among the items listed for sale this week. A search for Howell on the site turned up nothing.

Officers also found an old cellphone bill with a 2003 date circled and handwriting that said, "this just shows that the day after I killed," the affidavits allege. Authorities said the people Howell is accused of killing were slain in 2003.

A brief hearing in Howell's case was held Wednesday in New Britain Superior Court. Howell participated from prison via videoconference. A judge continued the case to Dec. 10.

Howell is serving a 15-year sentence for manslaughter in the killing of 33-year-old Nilsa Arimendi, of Wethersfield. He was charged in September with multiple murder counts in the killings of five other women and a man. All seven victims' bodies were found behind a shopping plaza in New Britain; three were discovered in 2007, and the rest were found last spring.

Howell has not entered pleas in connection with the murder charges. He continues to consider whether to invoke his right to a probable cause hearing, at which point prosecutors would have to prove there's enough evidence to proceed to trial. His lawyer has urged the public to remember the charges are unproved allegations and Howell should be considered innocent.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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