NORWICH – In compliance with a recommendation from the Office of Child and Family Services, a teenager who attempted to kill his mother will soon be transitioned into a group home setting.
Ty Tumminia, 15, stood before Family Court Judge W. Howard Sullivan Wednesday hoping to be transferred from the juvenile detention center where he has spent the past several months.
Tumminia, who was going to be tried by the district attorney’s office as an adult, was originally charged with second degree attempted murder. The case later moved into family court where Tumminia was placed with OCFS for an 18-month period.
According to Tumminia’s public defender and legal law guardian, Alan E. Gordon, the reports coming in from the OCSF indicate his client is ready to be moved into a group home in another community. “He will not be coming back to this community,” the public defender said.
Tumminia will remain in OCFS care until his period ends unless it is recommended to the judge that his stay be extended. “His 18 months is not up and that has not happened,” said Gordon.
In April of 2007, Tumminia was arrested in connection will a 911 call that indicated the teenager had tried to strangle his mother with a phone cord. Upon arrival to the residence at 80 S. Broad St., police found the mother unconscious. Believing she was dead, Tumminia fled the scene and was later apprehended by state police while unlawfully driving the family vehicle.
Court records and statements made throughout the ordeal indicate Tumminia and his mother had been arguing over letting the teen visit a girlfriend in Iowa.
It is believed that Tumminia attempted to strangle his mother with first a phone cord and then his bare hands while she slept in her bed. Cries for help were heard by the defendant’s younger brother, and it was reported that he had made the 911 call. Prosecutors said they believed Tumminia would have killed his mother if police had not arrived when they did.