Jason Comes Murder Case: Conviction and 48-Year Sentence

Timothy Lange, a member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, was convicted in March 2026 of the felony murder and kidnapping of Jason Comes, a 38-year-old Wilbraham, Massachusetts business owner whose body was found in a car in a Somers, Connecticut field on August 5, 2021. In June 2026, a Tolland Superior Court judge sentenced Lange to 48 years in prison, suspended after 43 years to serve, with five years of probation to follow.¹ A second suspect, Zachary Apt, was arrested in February 2026 and is awaiting trial. The Jason Comes murder case took more than four years to reach a jury.

What Happened the Night Jason Comes Was Killed

In the early hours of August 4, 2021, Comes and Lange were both at Mardi Gras 2, a bar in East Windsor, Connecticut. Surveillance footage shown at trial captured Lange arriving with four other men.² Comes’s car later left the bar behind Lange’s motorcycle, followed by Lange’s pickup truck (driven by another man) and a fourth vehicle. The convoy passed through Enfield, made a brief stop at a gas station, and ended at a property on Moody Road.³

That property was a clubhouse tied to the Knights of Sin, a motorcycle club connected to the Outlaws.⁴ About 90 minutes after the convoy arrived, cameras recorded two vehicles leaving and heading east toward Durkee Road in Somers.³

The next morning, a landowner on Durkee Road found a car parked in his field. Comes was in the back seat, unresponsive, his feet bound with tape and a belt wrapped around his left wrist. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.⁵ The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide caused by a gunshot wound to the torso that perforated the heart and lungs.⁶ The autopsy also found blunt-force trauma to his head and neck.⁷

Around 4:30 a.m. that same morning, roughly 60 miles away in Woodbridge, Lange’s pickup truck was found on fire at 50 Woodfield Road. The Woodbridge Fire Marshal identified it as the same truck seen on surveillance cameras hours earlier.²

How Investigators Built the Case

The investigation stretched more than three years and drew in Connecticut State Police, the FBI’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team, the Connecticut Forensic Science Laboratory, and several local departments.¹ Three strands of evidence carried the case: surveillance video tracking the vehicles that night, DNA on the victim’s clothing that linked Lange to the crime, and cellphone data showing where Lange and others moved between August 3 and August 5, 2021.³

Lange, then 35, was arrested in Haddam on February 19, 2025, on an active warrant. State police identified him as a known member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Gang. His bail was set at $1.5 million.⁸

Trial and Conviction

Lange’s trial was held at Tolland Superior Court in Rockville before Judge Tejas Bhatt, with Tolland State’s Attorney Craig P. Nowak prosecuting and defense attorney Michael Brown representing Lange. Testimony lasted more than a week. Lead investigator Detective Waylon Kimball spent hours walking the jury through the surveillance footage that traced the movements of Lange, Comes, and co-defendant Zachary Apt on the night of the killing.⁹

On March 5, 2026, the jury found Lange guilty of felony murder, second-degree kidnapping, and tampering with evidence. He was acquitted of the robbery charges.⁴

The 48-Year Sentence

Judge Bhatt sentenced Lange on June 3, 2026, to 48 years, suspended after 43 years to serve, followed by five years of probation.¹

Members of Comes’s family addressed the court before the sentence was imposed. His oldest daughter, Desiree, told the judge the chance to know her father and build memories with him had been “stolen.” His younger daughter, Jayla, called her father her “Superman” and said she had been “stripped of the rest of my childhood,” speaking of milestones like her wedding day that he would not see. His widow, Jennifer, whose relationship with him began in 2003, called him “my life and my best friend” and noted that he was killed shortly before their 13th wedding anniversary.¹⁰

Nowak told the court that in 26 years on the job the Comes case was “one of the most brutal murders I’ve worked on,” calling the killing “brutal and senseless” and telling the judge the men had beaten Comes before shooting him. Judge Bhatt said he had been thinking about what happened and why “ever since jury selection,” and called it “heartbreaking” that no motive had emerged.¹⁰

Lange spoke briefly. He said he was “sorry that this happened to the Comes family” and added, “all I can say is guilt by association.”¹⁰

The Second Suspect, Zachary Apt

Zachary Joseph Apt, 34, of Southington, was arrested at his home on February 13, 2026. He was charged with murder, conspiracy to commit second-degree kidnapping with a firearm, conspiracy to commit second-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit second-degree assault, tampering with physical evidence, and criminal liability for acts of another to tamper with evidence. He was held on $2.5 million bond.¹¹ Like Lange, Apt was identified as a member of an Enfield-based motorcycle gang connected to the Outlaws. As of Lange’s sentencing, his next court date was set for July 10, 2026.⁷

Who Jason Comes Was

Jason Rolando Comes was born on September 13, 1982, and lived in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, with his wife, Jennifer, and their three children, Jayla, Joey, and Desiree. He owned and operated Cutting-Edge Heating and Air Conditioning and was a former member of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local #4 in Worcester. He coached soccer, basketball, and baseball at Our Lady of Sacred Heart in Wilbraham for years.¹² His cousin Jennifer Marino described him at sentencing as “energetic, family-oriented and devoted to his children.”⁷

1
Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice. Judge Sentences Timothy Lange for Kidnapping and Murder of Jason Comes
2
Hartford Courant. CT Biker Club Member Gets 43 Years for Kidnapping, Killing of Massachusetts Man
3
Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice. Jury Convicts Timothy Lange of Kidnapping and Murder of Jason Comes
4
CT Insider. Timothy Lange Found Guilty in Somers Murder
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WTNH. New Britain Man Found Guilty of Kidnapping, Murder in Somers Homicide
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NBC Connecticut. Death of Man Found in Car in Somers Ruled a Homicide
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CT Post. Jason Comes Murder Case: Sentencing in Somers Killing
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WFSB. Motorcycle Gang Member Charged in Somers Murder
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CT Post. Timothy Lange Found Guilty in Somers Murder
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New Haven Register. Jason Comes Murder Case: Sentencing in Somers Killing
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Hartford Courant. Second Person Arrested on Murder, Kidnapping Charges in Death of Man Found in CT Woods
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MassLive. Jason Comes Obituary