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 grisly home invasion in which the ex-wife of a Texas billionaire and her artist boyfriend were injected with a substance they were told was a deadly virus have emerged, as a fourth man involved in the crime pleaded guilty this week.

Stefan Alexandru Barabas, 38, admitted in court to entering socialite Anne Bass' Connecticut home and holding her and her boyfriend, artist Julian Lethbridge, for ransom back in 2007.

Prosecutors say Barabas and his co-conspirators - Emanuel Nicolescu, Alexandru Lucian Nicolescu and Michael Kennedy - wore masks, brandished knives and fake guns and bound 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 known philanthropist and the ex-wife of Texas oil magnate Sid Bass - paid the suspects $8.5million, according to the Department of Justice. 

Stefan Alexandru Barabas, 38, pleaded guilty to participating in a grisly home invasion in 2007

The men told their victims they only 20 hours to produce the cash - holding them hostage for more than five hours while Bass' three-year-old grandson slept in a separate bedroom, the Hartford Courant reports.

Lethbridge tried to tell the men that Bass did not keep that much money inside the house, and that she would have to contact associates out of state to get the money.

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

Eventually, though, the men became concerned with the presence of the child inside the house, the health of their victims and their apparent inability to immediately obtain the money.

They then gave the victims a beverage they claimed was the antidote - but was actually sleeping pills.

As the victims dozed off, the assailants stole Bass' Jeep Cherokee and drove away.

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

An accordion case also washed ashore in Queens, New York six days after the home invasion - containing a stun gun, knife, Airsoft gun, crowbar, syringes, sleeping pills, gloves and a phone card with the victims' address inside. 

Barabas and three co-defendants held Anne Bass and her boyfriend Julian Lethbridge for ransom inside Bass' sprawling Connecticut home

For three years, the investigation into the horrific crime was stalled.

Then, in 2010, an investigator with the Connecticut State Police connected 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 go on to discover that data for a cell tower near the New Rochelle Home Depot, where the truck was found, contained a call by a number registered to Emmanuel.

Investigators from the State Police and the FBI then gathered Emmanuel's DNA and found it partially matched a sample from the Jeep's steering wheel.

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

Prosecutors now say Barabas' co-conspirators planned the home invasion - which included research and creating a list of supplies needed, such as two-way radios, stun guns and imitation pistols.

Barabas and the Nicolescus then carried out the crime, while Kennedy acted as the driver. 

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

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

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

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

He now faces between 72 months to 84 months behind bars for conspiracy to interfere with commerce by extortion, under a plea deal.

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

He is now being detained, as he awaits sentencing on September 11.