Ex-girlfriend testifies to overhearing confession of 2012 murder
STAMFORD — The evidentiary portion of 26-year-old Hakeem Atkinson’s murder trial came to a close Monday with testimony from an ex-girlfriend who claims to have overheard him admitting to the fatal shooting of a 20-year-old Norwalk man in 2012.
Kira Jordan, 26, told a half-full courtroom that she had overheard Atkinson, a Bridgeport resident, confess to the homicide while talking on the phone at some point following the fatal shooting of Joseph “Jabs” Bateman on Feb. 3, 2012, in the area of the Avalon Norwalk apartment buildings, now known as The Confluence at Norwalk.
“I can’t remember exactly when I overheard a conversation Hakeem was having. I can’t remember who he was having the conversation with,” Jordan said in a documented statement to police.
Jordan went on to say in the statement that Atkinson had heard Bateman walking near the Avalon Apartment complex that day.
Jordan said that she heard Atkinson say he got in a car with three people, drove to the area and then confronted Bateman on the walk path to the rear of the apartment buildings.
“Hakeem said they exchanged words and then Hakeem pulled a gun out of his waistband and fired shots at Jabs. Hakeem said he saw Jabs fall to the ground and then Hakeem ran toward Cross Street,” Jordan said in a statement sworn under penalty of perjury.
Prior to Jordan’s testimony, defense attorney John Gulash raised an objection to the statement being read on the record, claiming that her account was “hearsay.”
Judge John Blawie overruled Gulash’s objection, finding that the sworn statement would be admissible as evidence.
Despite losing the motion, Gulash still took aim at gaps in Jordan’s memory of what she had heard that day.
Gulash pointed out that Jordan had testified twice before a grand jury in New Haven — once in March 2017 and again in April 2017 — during which time he claims her account of events appeared inconsistent.
“Do you remember whether or not, after signing that document and then when you went to New Haven in March, you admitted to them that you really weren’t sure whether or not what you put in that statement was what you heard him say, as opposed to what you heard other people say? Do you remember saying that?” Gulash asked.
“After I was nervous, that’s what I told them. Yep,” Jordan replied, adding that her “memory was clouded” at the time. “All I said was I wasn’t sure.”
Gulash then pointed out that Jordan did not tell Norwalk police anything about Atkinson’s alleged involvement in the shooting when she was first interviewed in 2012, but only came forward with a sworn statement when asked in 2016, nearly four years after the incident.
On redirect, Senior Assistant State’s Attorney David Applegate asked Jordan to explain the fluctuations between her sworn statement in November 2016 and her later testimony before the grand jury five months later.
“You were reluctant that first time we brought you (to testify), weren’t you?” asked Applegate. “Do you remember why? What had changed in those five months?”
Jordan responded that Atkinson had “been away” from Norwalk when she gave her statement, but when he returned to the city, she began having “concerns” about her safety.
Despite those concerns, however, Jordan later testified that everything in her statement was “true” at the second grand jury inquiry, according to Applegate.
Jordan’s testimony comes days after two other eyewitnesses identified Atkinson out of a photo lineup as the shooter that day. An FBI agent also detailed an analysis of historical cell site information that placed Atkinson’s cellphone in the rough area of the homicide that day.
On Tuesday, Applegate and Gulash will make their closing arguments in the case. A jury will then decide whether to find Atkinson guilty or not guilty of murder.