East Hartford man charged in 2008 killing after concert
Days after that incident, suspect was shot 10 times
HARTFORD – A 28-year-old convicted felon was charged Friday with a 2008 Hartford killing that happened little more than a week before he was shot 10 times amid a rash of gang violence in the city.
James Dexter Brown of East Hartford, who who is known as “Decky,” has been confined to a wheelchair for more than a decade. He was charged
Friday with murder in connection with the June
2008 killing of Kenny
“Banga” Sullivan, 20, of
Hartford, police said.
Brown was arraigned Monday in Superior Court in Hartford. Judge Ann E. Lynch set his bail at $1 million and ordered him back to court Jan. 30.
Sullivan's killing shortly after members of the Money Green Bedroc gang brawled with members of the Sandz-Bridge street gang at a “Hot Jam” concert at the XL Center, according to an arrest warrant. Brown, a self-proclaimed Money Green Bedroc member, and Sullivan got into a fight.
Hartford police, state cold case inspectors and federal agents interviewed nearly a dozen people involved in the incident, most of whom said the fight was over something stupid, such as a woman or someone bumping into another person.
But on the night of June 26, 2008, it mattered a great deal to Brown and Sullivan, according to the warrant. After leaving the concert, Sullivan and people associated with Sands-Bridge were walking north on Main Street near what is now Dunkin' Donuts Park. Brown and some of the Money Green Bedroc members retrieved guns from a car in a parking lot across Main Street near the former “butt ugly building” and the groups began shouting at each other.
Sullivan, witnesses told police, stepped into the street and yelled back at Brown, and Brown opened fire, striking Sullivan in the abdomen.
Sullivan's friends loaded him into a car and took off. Seconds later, as they rounded the corner onto Pleasant Street, Sullivan's friends pushed his body out of the car and left him in the street. He died hours later at Hartford Hospital.
Brown and the other Money Green Bedroc members, many of whom are serving long prison terms for gun violence in Hartford, agreed among themselves not to speak about the killing of Sullivan. But multiple witnesses told investigators that Brown regularly boasted about killing Sullivan.
One witness told detectives that Brown said of the shooting, “that's how the Gods do.” During a gathering of gang members with Money Green Bedroc leader Donald “Amen” Raynor, Raynor told everyone they had to keep quiet about the killing of Sullivan. If anyone spoke, he said, they would get a carrot, according to the warrant. Carrot means a gunshot to the head, the warrant reads.
Another witness heard Brown brag about killing Sullivan and say “that is my work.” Another heard Brown boast he had gotten away with murder, according to the warrant.
Days later, Brown was shot 10 times in as a result of a feud between members of The AVE street gang and Money Green Bedroc, according to court records. The violent drug gangs controlled the drug trade in parts of Hartford. The shooting left Brown paralyzed from the waist down and blind in one eye.
Brown and a 15-year-old boy, both members of Money Green Bedroc, were targeted on July 4, 2008, for the killing that night of The AVE member Anthony Alexander, court records show.
Brown's criminal record dates to 2008, when he was convicted of assault for his role in the stabbing of an 18-year-old. He was also sentenced to five years in prison in 2011 for possessing a sawed-off shotgun and criminal possession of a firearm.
He was on probation for that conviction when he sold $100 worth of crack cocaine to the undercover officer, records show. He was later named in a sweeping crack cocaine conspiracy outlined in a federal grand jury indictment.
In 2015, a federal judge sentenced Brown to four years for his role in the conspiracy. This sentence ran concurrently to a sentence for a state conviction on similar charges. He was in federal prison in North Carolina when state inspectors picked him up.