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He has not been charged in the teen's death.
Police had been investigating him for at least a few years before Ian Wells, 18, of Wethersfield died in Webster's home in mid-August, a warrant for his arrest said. Several parents, including the Wells family, contended at the time of Ian's death that Webster was allowing teens to use alcohol and drugs in his home.
But police said they were unable to charge Webster with any crimes until a sharp-eyed patrol officer spotted three teens near his house in December.
"When the officer pulled over to speak to them, the kids went running," Police Chief James Cetran said. "He found them by following their footprints in the snow. They had alcohol on their breath and one of the teens said Mr. Webster provided the alcohol."
Webster was charged with one count of illegal delivery of alcohol to a minor and held on $500 bond until his appearance in Superior Court Tuesday. A judge ordered him not to be in the company of anyone under 21 unless they were relatives as a condition of his release without bond.
Wells was found dead in an upstairs room of Webster's home Aug. 18 after the 18-year-old and a 17-year-old friend had Webster drive them to Hartford to buy heroin, detectives said. Webster and the 17-year-old told police he had no idea that he was driving the kids to buy drugs.
The other teen admitted to police he and Wells used the drug in Webster's home. Webster said Wells appeared to be asleep for eight hours before he realized he wasn't breathing.
"I didn't know what they were doing up there," Webster told The Herald in August. "I heard the other kid yelling Ian's name around 2 p.m. because he couldn't wake him up, but when I went up there to check on them, he appeared to be breathing."
Wells had just returned from a three-week stint working as a camp counselor when he died, his parents said in August. He had recently graduated from Wethersfield High School and was a talented musician who could pick up a guitar or mandolin and play by ear.
No criminal charges were filed in Wells' death. But Cetran said police have spent months speaking to teens who refused to admit they had been drinking at Webster's home. Other kids confirmed drinking incidents that were too old to prosecute under the state's statute of limitations, he said.
"This case has been very frustrating between the kids refusing to talk to the State's Attorney's Office feeling there wasn't enough probable cause to make an arrest to the statute of limitations for a misdemeanor, which is one year," Cetran said.
Webster admitted to The Herald after Wells' death that teens often hung around in his house and he would try to chase them off, but couldn't.
"They just walk right in, how am I supposed to stop them? I guess I'm an old softie," he said. "They want to use the phone. They want rides to the skateboard park. Ian would often ask for a ride, even though his parents were home."
The arrest warrant served Monday indicates police had pulled Webster over for seat-belt violations in 2006 and 2007 and discovered teens in the car with unopened alcohol bottles. Each time, the teens refused to admit Webster had bought the alcohol for them.
But when confronted with the teen's written statements about the December incident, Webster admitted he had been purchasing booze for minors for at least a year.
"After purchasing the alcohol, I would drive back home and give [a teen] the alcohol. I would then go to bed after giving him the alcohol I purchased," Webster said in a written statement to police dated April 2. "Within a year I have purchased alcohol for minors approximately 12 times. [The teen] would always ask me to buy him 40-ounce bottles of alcohol."
Cetran said, "It wasn't that we were reluctant to arrest Mr. Webster. We had absolutely no direct evidence that he helped them buy drugs. We couldn't make a case on that."
The Wells family could not be reached by phone Tuesday. Webster is due back in court May 12.
