Stamford man opts for trial in attempted murder case
STAMFORD — A 24year-old city man rejected a state offer to plead guilty to attempted murder charges in a shooting that police said stemmed from a car sale gone wrong. Jeff Etienne, 24, rejected an offer at a disposition hearing Monday morning to plead guilty to charges of criminal attempt at murder and two counts of firstdegree assault with a deadly weapon.
In return for pleading guilty, Etienne would have received a 20-year prison sentence, suspended between the mandatory minimum of 10 and 15 years, and five years of probation.
Stamford’s senior public defender Howard Ehring said Etienne rejected the offer due to “some reservations” about pleading guilty to attempted murder.
“At this time, I think it’s probably best if we just place this case on the firm jury list,” Ehring said on Monday.
Etienne is charged with attempted murder, criminal possession of a pistol, firstdegree threatening and two counts of first-degree assault in connection to a November 2020 shooting that left two men injured.
The state extended Etienne the offer in July 2021, according to Daniel Cummings, assistant state’s attorney for the StamfordNorwalk Judicial District.
Sgt. Sean Boeger wrote in an arrest affidavit that Etienne was trying to return a car he had recently purchased from one of the men injured in the shooting.
When the man refused to accept the returned car, Etienne allegedly told him, “I’m gonna pop you,” according to the affidavit.
Later that day, according to the affidavit, the two men were driving down Fairfield Avenue in Stamford when a man they identified as Etienne got out of a car in front of them and began shooting. One man, 33, suffered gunshot wounds to the shoulder and hand, while the second man, 23, was grazed by a bullet on his forearm.
In addition to the charges tied to the November 2020 shooting, Etienne also faces charges on two counts of violation of probation. Etienne was on probation after he was convicted of carrying a weapon in a motor vehicle in 2019.
Etienne is being held at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in lieu of $1 million bond. He has been in custody since his arrest in November 2020.
If convicted of attempted murder and two counts of first-degree assault with a deadly weapon, Etienne faces up to 40 years in prison.
No trial date has been set.