The Darker Side > Human Monsters

Brayman case

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Desdemone:
WESTERLY - A local manis being held on charges including conspiracy to commit murder and allegedly faked spiritual powers to dupe another man into making a pipe bomb designed to kill a former acquaintance, according to an arrest warrant filed in New London Superior Court.

The target of the planned attack was not injured, but as a result of the scheme, Robert E. Brayman, 51, of 501/2 Franklin St., Westerly, is being held in lieu of $500,000 bond at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield, Conn. He is due in New London Superior Court on Monday.

Brayman is charged by Connecticut State Police with conspiring to commit murder and third-degree larceny after he allegedly conspired with friend Hobart Livingston - a man police ordered to psychiatric evaluation at a New London hospital - to kill a woman Brayman had been infatuated with, according to the warrant.

Brayman also was charged by Westerly police with being a fugitive from justice and assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly pointing a gun at Livingston.

The 16-page arrest warrant details a sordid, sad and surreal chain of events that began with the men meeting at a gas station 17 years ago and ended with Livingston showing police components of a homemade bomb that he had built, allegedly at Brayman's request.

The bomb was supposed to be used to kill a woman with whom Brayman had worked and was stalking, according to the warrant. Livingston told police Brayman that wanted him to fix the bomb to the woman's gas tank when her car was parked at the commuter lot at I-95 and Route 2 in Stonington.

State Police discovered the bomb after Livingston's brother, Peter, called police and said Livingston had arrived at his house with the device. The bomb was disassembled in the basement, but bomb technicians with the State Police Emergency Services Unit arrived and determined that the device "had all the components of a live pipe bomb and was indeed an improvised explosive device."

Police later searched Livingston's house and found two envelopes containing photographs of a woman in two different parking lots getting in and out of different cars. Livingston told police that the photographs were of the alleged victim and her two vehicles. The woman in the photographs was identified, but initially refused to meet with police or cooperate in the investigation.

Following Livingston's arrest for assault with a deadly weapon, the alleged victim provided written statements to police and confirmed that the pictures confiscated in the search were of her. She told police that she did not know she was being photographed and wanted Brayman arrested.

In addition to the photographs, police found a number of items that could be used for making bombs, including a "muzzle loading propellant powder, a length of threaded pipe" a drill press and a hole saw. Police also found letters Livingston said were from Brayman - and included money and religious references to Psalm 23.

A police search of Brayman's apartment turned up weapons and other items that police said may validate Livingston's claims.

Livingston told police that over the years he has paid Brayman - a man he believed to have special spiritual powers - thousands of dollars for praying to protect people, including actress Natalie Portman and Jon Benet Ramsey.

These spiritual intercessions allegedly were costly to him. Livingston said that of $322 a week he was earning recently while working at Foxwoods Resort Casino, he was paying Brayman $290.

Livingston told police he had specifically paid Brayman $80 a week over 173 weeks for a total of $13,840 to protect actress Natalie Portman. According to the warrant, Brayman told Livingston that "eggs had been implanted in Natalie, and if the eggs hatched, she would be invaded by creatures that would strangle off her oxygen and she would be torn apart from the inside out."

Livingston told police that he has taken loans, credit card advances and borrowed money from his mother to pay Brayman, leaving him in financial ruin. The warrant describes Livingston as being at Brayman's beckoned call, doing everything Brayman asks out of fear of being sent to hell or being otherwise punished if he disobeyed orders.

Livingston said he would have to report to Brayman's house after his shift at Foxwoods and again at 11:30 p.m. after working as a dishwasher at the Steak Loft restaurant in Mystic.

Upon reporting to Brayman's house, Livingston said he was forced to perform a host of unusual, time-consuming and sometimes painful tasks.

Livingston said Brayman had been "training" him to acquire the same spiritual powers he claimed to possess. Livingston said he was forced to sit motionless on Brayman's floor in his undershorts and recite the 23rd Psalm all night without sleep.

Livingston said he also would be made to sit in a lawn chair in Brayman's basement and look for "eyes or moving things" that Brayman told him were evil spirits. Armed with a BB pistol, Livingston said Brayman told him to shoot anything that moves.

Once, after disobeying orders from Brayman, Livingston said the man pointed a .22-caliber revolver at him, made various threats and asked him how it felt to "know you're going to die."

It was this incident that Livingston said convinced him to tell his brother about Brayman's plans to kill the woman.

According to the warrant, the two men would often go to Riverbend Cemetery for "training." There, Livingston told police that he would run between gravestones while Brayman shot at him with a BB gun. By learning to dodge the BBs, Brayman told Livingston he would learn to fight evil demons and spirits. Livingston told police that he often was struck during these exercises.

On April 4, the warrant says, Westerly police responded to Franklin Street after a man reported seeing suspicious activity in Brayman's backyard. According to the warrant, officers saw a man, later identified as Hobart Livingston, wearing plastic safety goggles, running in circles and "occasionally yelping in pain."

Police spoke with both men, who said they were exercising. BBs were on the ground, according to police, but because Livingston had taken a vow of secrecy to never speak about dealings with Brayman, he did not complain to officers at the time. But when interviewed on May 15, Livingston told police that Brayman had been shooting at him with a BB rifle on the date in question.

After interviewing Livingston, police obtained a warrant and searched Brayman's house. The search turned up a .22-caliber revolver that Brayman allegedly pointed at Livingston, two BB rifles and a number of other objects that confirm various aspects of Livingston's story.

Following Brayman's May 16 arrest for assault with a deadly weapon, the warrant shows that police interviewed Brayman. During the interview, Brayman admitted to taking "a couple thousand dollars" from Hobart over the past two years. He further admitted to posing as a man with spiritual powers and the "training" exercises where he shot Livingston with a BB gun.

According to the warrant, Brayman also admitted to having contact with the woman he had contacted Livingston to kill. Brayman told police he had given the alleged victim gifts and had met her for coffee several times. The victim later confirmed her relationship with Brayman.

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