Bridgeport man loses appeal of 2nd murder trial

HARTFORD — A Bridgeport man who had won the appeal of his conviction for killing a young woman and seriously wounding two others has lost his second appeal in the case.

On Wednesday, the state Supreme Court refused to order a third trial for Durante Best for the same crime.

The state’s highest court denied Best’s claim that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting into evidence four photographs that depicted the bloody interior of a car used to transport to the hospital two victims who were shot by Best.

“Hopefully, the Supreme Court's r uling today will bring closure to the victim’s f amily, who have lived with this senseless loss of life for the past 14 years,” said Bridgeport State’s Attorney Joseph Corradino, who prosecuted the case.

In 2007, a 12-person jury in Bridgeport convicted Best of murder, attempted murder and first-degree assault for shooting a former girlfriend and two young women who came to her aid. He was sentenced at that time to 80 years in prison.

However, the state Appellate Court later overturned the convictions and ordered a new trial contending that, based on the evidence at trial, the judge should have instructed the jury they could consider that Best acted in self-defense.

Last January, a second jury convicted Best of the same charges following a second trial.

In his new appeal, Best claimed that the photographs were unduly prejudicial because their graphic nature had a tendency “to inflame the jury’s passions or tug on the jurors’ sympathies.”

It was that appeal the court denied.

On May 4, 2006, Best, who was on probation for dr ug and assault charges, was arguing with his girlfriend, Erica Anderson, in their Jefferson Street home in Bridgeport, according to trial testimony.

In the meantime, Anderson's 21-year-old daughter, Octavia, her 3-year-old son and a friend, 19-year-old Rogerlina Jones, came to the house to pick up Erica Anderson with plans to go to a carnival at Newfield Park. When Jones returned to the car to report she heard arguing coming from the apartment, both she and Octavia Anderson went inside, according to testimony.

Octavia began banging on the bedroom door demanding to see her mother. When the door was flung open, three to four gunshots were fired, police said. Octavia Anderson and Jones were both hit in the chest.

Both women stumbled from the house, leaving a trail of blood to Octavia Anderson's car. Anderson drove to Bridgeport Hospital, where Jones later died.

Meanwhile, Erica Anderson ran out of the house where she also had been shot in the chest, testimony showed.

On the witness stand in the second trial, Best testified that he was concerned for his life when Octavia Anderson and Jones were banging on the door.

However, under cross examination by Corradino, he admitted he purposely fired at the two unarmed women.