David Collins says tearing down more buildings in New London is a terrible idea.

No verdict reached on most counts in NL conspiracy case

A jury in U. S. District Court in Hartford was unable to reach verdicts in all but one count at the trial of two New London men accused of conspiring to kill Javier Reyes in September 2012 to protect a drug-dealing enterprise run out of a series of garage bays on Walker Street.

Oscar “Tato” Valentin was found guilty late Monday of possession with intent to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine, a charge that carries a five-year mandatory minimum sentence.

But the 12- member jury could not agree on three other counts involving his alleged conspiracy with Nestor “Ernie” Pagan to hire three men to assault Reyes, who was fatally stabbed outside his 187 Huntington St. apartment on September 12, 2012.

In Pagan’s case, the jury was hung on all four counts, despite repeated instruction from Judge Vanessa L. Bryant to try to come to an agreement.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office had no comment on the verdict and did not indicate whether it would retry the case, though several people involved said a retrial is likely.

Pagan, who is facing firearms charges in an unrelated case, will remain incarcerated.

Three men — Jose “Gugie” Rosado Jr., 23; Andrew “Papo” Avilies, 28; and Messiah Williams, who was a juvenile at the time of the offense — have pleaded guilty in connection with Reyes’ fatal stabbing and are awaiting sentencing.

“There were issues we raised, and obviously the jury had significant concerns about the government’s evidence,” said Westport attorney Elliot R. Warren, who had been appointed by the court to represent Valentin.

“We don’t know what the split was in the jury,” Warren said. “We just don’t get to find that out.”

In his cross-examination of witnesses and closing argument, Warren, reached by telephone on Tuesday afternoon, said he had argued that the government did not have “a shred of evidence” to prove its assertion that Reyes and others were trying to take over the cocaine distribution operation they said Valentin operated out of an 11-bay garage, known as the “green garages,” at the intersection of Bristol and Walker streets.

The government had alleged that at Valentin’s bidding, Pagan hired Rosado and Aviles to beat up Reyes for $200.

Valentin’s attorney said that the victim, Reyes, was Valentin’s brother-in-law and that the trouble within the family had nothing to do with the drug operation.

“It had to do with personal stuff,” Warren said.

In the summer of 2011, Valentin had been the intended victim of a murder- for- hire plot involving Reyes’ brotherin-law, Antonio Pena, according to court documents and testimony.

The brother-in-law, Antonio “Wilson” Pena, had arranged to pay two people to kill Valentin.

Police received a tip and arrested Pena and the two conspirators, Gerardo Carrillo and Elmer Melendez, on the day they were to carry out the plot.

All three pleaded guilty in state Superior Court and received prison terms.

At the federal trial, the government had played recordings of several of Valentin’s conversations it intercepted the morning after the Reyes homicide.

The prosecution alleged Valentin admitted to arranging Reyes’ assault and said it would show the people of New London that they should not interfere with his business.

Warren said that in the majority of those conversations, Valentin denied involvement in the killing and talked about things Reyes had done to anger other people.

“The government singled out some things, but the overriding message was, ‘I didn’t do it,’” Warren said.

Attorney Brian Spears of Southport, who had represented Pagan, declined to comment on the verdict.

Valentin has been incarcerated since April 2013, when he was arrested, along with 100 others, following a lengthy investigation by multiple law enforcement agencies that authorities said dismantled overlapping operations that supplied much of the heroin and cocaine flowing into southeastern Connecticut from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and New York City.

Authorities said Valentin purchased and sold wholesale quanitities of 50 to 100 grams of powder cocaine, some of which he acquired in Springfield, Mass.