Inside the home invasion where Texas billionaire’s art collector ex wife and artist boyfriend were injected with ‘deadly virus’ and held for ransom

New details about a gruesome home invasion in which a Texas billionaire’s ex-wife and her artist boyfriend were injected with a substance they were told was a deadly virus have emerged as a fourth man linked to the crime pleaded guilty week.

Stefan Alexandru Barabas, 38, admitted in court that he entered the Connecticut home of socialite Anne Bass in 2007 and held her and her boyfriend, artist Julian Lethbridge, for ransom.

Prosecutors say Barabas and his co-conspirators – Emanuel Nicolescu, Alexandru Lucian Nicolescu and Michael Kennedy – wore masks, brandished knives and fake guns and tied up and blindfolded Bass and Lethbridge just before midnight on April 15, 2007.

They then injected the two with a substance they claimed was a “deadly virus,” saying they would withhold the antidote unless Bass — a noted philanthropist and the ex-wife of Texas oil magnate Sid Bass — paid the suspects $8 would pay .5 million. according to the Ministry of Justice.

The men told their victims they had only 20 hours to collect the money. They held them hostage for more than five hours while Bass’ three-year-old grandson slept in a separate bedroom. reports the Hartford Courant.

Lethbridge tried to tell the men that Bass didn’t have that much money on hand and that she would have to contact out-of-state associates to get the money.

At one point, according to an arrest warrant, the attackers considered transporting one or both victims to New York to obtain the influx of cash.

But eventually the men became concerned about the child’s presence in the house, the health of their victims and their apparent inability to obtain the money immediately.

They then gave the victims a drink that they claimed was the antidote, but was actually sleeping pills.

As the victims fell asleep, the assailants stole Bass’ Jeep Cherokee and drove away.

Her vehicle was found the next day outside a Home Depot in New Rochelle, New York, while Bass and Lethbridge were treated at a nearby hospital – and discovered that the substance they had been injected with was harmless.

Six days after the home invasion, an accordion case also washed up in Queens, New York, containing a stun gun, knife, Airsoft pistol, crowbar, syringes, sleeping pills, gloves and a phone card with the victims’ addresses inside.

Barabas and three co-defendants held Anne Bass and her boyfriend Julian Lethbridge for ransom at Bass’s sprawling Connecticut home

The investigation into the gruesome crime was stalled for three years.

Then in 2010, a Connecticut State Police investigator linked a partial Pennsylvania license plate, seen by a witness near the victim’s sprawling estate, to a car owned by Michael Kennedy — who had once shared an apartment with Emmanuel Nicolescu, a former butler at the Bass estate.

The investigator would then discover that records from a cell tower near the New Rochelle Home Depot, where the truck was found, contained a call from a number registered to Emmanuel.

State police and FBI investigators then collected Emmanuel’s DNA and found it partially matched a sample from the Jeep’s steering wheel.

The investigation then began to unravel when investigators realized that Kennedy’s father was a professional accordion player, and a witness identified a knife in the accordion case as a gift Emmanuel had received from his father-in-law.

Prosecutors now say Barabas’ co-conspirators planned the home invasion, including researching and creating a list of needed supplies, such as walkie-talkies, stun guns and imitation handguns.

Barabas and the Nicolescus then carried out the crime, with Kennedy acting as driver.

The four men held the victims captive in the sprawling estate for five hours, while Bass’ three-year-old grandson slept in another room.

Emanuel Nicolescu was eventually arrested in Illinois in 2011 and found guilty by a jury months later.

Meanwhile, Kennedy voluntarily returned to the US from Romania in 2012 and Alexandru Nicolesco was arrested in the UK in 2013. They both pleaded guilty to their roles in the home invasion.

However, Barabas had been a fugitive until his arrest in Hungary in August 2022.

He will now serve between 72 and 84 months behind bars for conspiracy to disrupt commerce through racketeering, under a plea deal.

But if that plea deal is not accepted by a judge, Barabas could face up to 20 years in prison.

He is now being held pending sentencing on September 11.