Man sentenced to seven years in prison for Stamford shooting
STAMFORD — A Bridgeport man involved in a shooting that led to the death of a Stamford man, which in turn touched off a shooting war between gang factions on the city’s East and West sides, was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Glachan Charlestin, 27, accepted his sentence, which was handed down by Judge Gary White in the Stamford courtroom, without comment Monday morning.
Charlestin and Stamford resident Randy Francis were arrested nearly three years after Darius Jones, 22, was killed while jumping for cover after shots rang out as he and friends were leaving a Custer Street barbecue block party on the night of July 7, 2012.
Originally charged with Jones’ murder, the state’s case against Charlestin wavered until a disposition was worked out earlier this year in which he pleaded guilty to lesser charges of seconddegree manslaughter with a firearm and second-degree assault with a firearm.
“It was a weak case to begin with, and when the state analyzed the case after we pointed out its flaws, the state made an offer that Glachan could not refuse,” Charlestin’s attorney, Aaron Romano, said.
Francis was exonerated after it was determined he was wearing a GPS tracker bracelet on his ankle that showed that while it was possible, it was extremely un
likely that he had anything to do with shooting those leaving the Custer Street party that night.
Police said that Charlestin and an as-yet-unidentified other man sprang from behind a parked car and sprayed bullets into a crowd of people who were thought to be friends of someone who had pistol-whipped one of the gunmen.
A through-and-through shot to the upper torso killed Jones, and additional shots wounded three others.
“We know someone was shooting with a .22 (caliber pistol) and someone was shooting with a .9 mm (caliber pistol),” Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph Valdes said. “But we were never able to identify who caused the fatal injuries because it was a throughand-through on the deceased.”
Without the slug that killed Jones, it could not be determined which gun killed the 22-year-old Stamford man, police said.
Besides witnesses who came out three years later to say Charlestin and Francis were there, police obtained some direct evidence in the form of a phone call that Charlestin made while he was in prison, where he confessed to being on Custer Street that night and firing a .22-caliber pistol, Valdes said on Monday.
“Without being able to prove that he had the specific intent to shoot any particular person, it is just reckless conduct, a reckless manslaughter,” Valdes said.
Soon after the July 7, 2012, shooting, others began occurring that police chalked up to retribution for Jones’ death, said Sgt. Paul Guzda.
Four nights later on July 11, 2012, a Stamford man who turned out to be Jones’ best friend, turned up shot to death at the back entrance to Norwalk Hospital.
Guzda, who headed up the investigation into that shooting death, called the incident a “total mess.” He said police believe that the deceased man, Wyclif Bel-Jean, 21, and some friends got into the back of a white truck carrying bread, drove to the West Side and opened fire on a group of men on Spruce Street. No one on the street was reported shot.
The investigation revealed that Bel-Jean caught the bullet from one of his friends, a slug that was probably meant for a rival on Spruce Street, Guzda said. Bel-Jean turned out to be the victim of “friendly fire,” he said.
“They didn’t go directly to Stamford Hospital because they probably thought that the cops would be all over the place and instead went to Norwalk. And it turned out he did not make it and he died on the street behind Norwalk Hospital,” Guzda said Tuesday morning.
As a result of a lack of cooperation, no one has been brought to justice for Bel-Jean’s death.