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| Convicted Killer Seeks Female Correspondents on Web |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 07/16/2003 |
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The 25-year-old former Greenwich man has set up a Web page seeking female correspondents, listing his current address as the Donald W. Wyatt Correctional Center in Central Falls, R.I., the Greenwich Time reported recently. At the site www.inmate.com/inmates/sauldosreis.htm, Dos Reis has included a personal ad written in the first person and a photograph of him in a tuxedo. Above the ad is the heading, ''The Right One.'' ''A woman with a good heart that loves to write and that is not afraid of being herself,'' writes Dos Reis, describing his perfect pen pal. ''I also look for a person that knows what she wants out of life.'' Dos Reis incorrectly wrote on the site that he was convicted of second-degree assault. In a plea agreement, he was convicted in March of state charges including first-degree manslaughter and two counts of second-degree sexual assault in the May 2002 strangling of 13-year-old Christina Long in Danbury. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison on those charges. He also pleaded guilty to two federal charges of traveling across state lines to have sex with a minor in the cases of Long and another underage girl he had sex with in 1998. He is scheduled to be sentenced on those charges July 29. The case of Long, a sixth-grader, received national attention and led to a push in Congress for a kids-only domain on the Internet. Authorities say Dos Reis strangled Long on May 17, 2002, as the two were having sex in his car at the Danbury Fair Mall. Authorities said Dos Reis encountered her in an Internet chat room and met her at the mall on two separate occasions. Dos Reis, a Brazilian national, was working in his stepfather's restaurant in Port Chester, N.Y., at the time. The defense contended the death was accidental. On the Web page, Dos Reis describes himself as a ''very outgoing heterosexual male,'' who prefers female correspondents but will reply to all letters. ''I am very good at telling stories which can and will have you shiver,'' his advertisement says. Shelly Riling, Christina's aunt and guardian, said recently in a telephone interview she was shocked by the Web page, calling it an example of ''predatory behavior.'' ''I can't believe he has a Web site,'' said Riling, who lives in Danbury. ''It shows that he has a disease and is incurable. He hasn't learned anything.'' Prison officials have taken no disciplinary action against Dos Reis, although they informed him that using the inmate.com service is against a prison policy designed to protect the public from being victimized by released inmates. Prison officials do read all inmates' mail, except legal correspondence, to check for contraband. Letters responding to the personal ad will not be given to Dos Reis, but letters that show no sign of being prompted by the Web ad would likely be forwarded to him, said Peter St. Jean, the prison's chief of security. ''That's something which we wouldn't stop because it's like getting a letter from a friend,'' St. Jean said. Dos Reis' defense attorney, Peter Tilem, said Dos Reis' Web site was understandable. ''This is someone who is going to spend the next 30 years in prison and he's lonely and scared,'' Tilem said. ''We can't imagine how lonely he feels so I can understand.'' According to inmate.com, inmates can place an ad for four months for $60, and $15 for each month thereafter. The Web site designs and posts the ad for the subscriber. Purchasers of premium advertisements, such as Dos Reis, are given a personal e-mail box, which allows people to respond to the ad via e-mail. Once a week the service forwards the e-mail responses to the inmate in a letter. The U.S. attorney's office in New Haven, which is prosecuting the federal case, declined to comment through spokeswoman Delcie Thibault. |
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