Man sentenced to 33 years in prison for fatal shooting

A New Haven man was sentenced to over 30 years in prison on Tuesday for the fatal 2022 shooting of a recent high school graduate, officials said.

Kiyon Matheney, 26, was sentenced by Judge Elpedio N. Vitale to 33 years in prison for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old John Tubac-saquil of New Haven in July 2022, according to a statement from the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice on Wednesday.

On Oct. 6, a New Haven Superior Court jury found Matheney guilty of first-degree manslaughter with a firearm, carrying a pistol without a permit and criminal possession of a firearm, the DCJ said.

According to court records, Matheney shot Tubac-saquil shortly after 11 p.m. on July 3, 2022, when Matheney approached Tubac-saquil’s truck on Poplar Street where he was talking to his girlfriend. Tubac-saquil died four days later.

The New Haven Police Department secured an arrest warrant for Matheney on Oct. 17, 2022. He was taken into custody two days later, court records show. Matheney was a convicted felon at the time of the shooting, with prior convictions for assault, robbery with a weapon and violation dating back to 2014, according to court records.

Tubac-saquil, who had recently graduated from High School in the Community at the time of his death, planned to start college in the fall of 2022. Several teachers and instructors, as well as his family, addressed the court at sentencing, according to the DCJ.

New Haven State’s Attorney John P. Doyle Jr. extended “his condolences to the Tubacsaquil family, and his gratitude to the New Haven Police Department for their investigative efforts,” the DCJ said in the release.