Brother of Joey Gingerella’s killer charged with hindering prosecution

Justin Davenport alleged to have helped Dante Hughes escape area after shooting

The brother of a man serving a 45-year prison sentence for the Dec. 11, 2016, shooting death of Joey Gingerella has been charged with hindering prosecution.

Groton Town police allege Justin Davenport, 33, of 234 Broad St., Apt. B, Norwich, helped Dante Hughes escape the area after the shooting by purchasing Hughes a cellphone and paying an acquaintance $100 to drive him to a Boston bus station.

Davenport posted a $50,000 bond following his arraignment in New London Superior Court on Jan. 30 and is due back in court on Feb. 27. Davenport also was charged by

Norwich police with interfering with police and disobeying the signal of an officer on Jan. 30 and has separate pending charges of criminal possession of a firearm and interfering with police.

Prosecutor Christa L. Baker said she expects Davenport to be the final person prosecuted in the Gingerella case.

Hughes shot Gingerella, known as “Jo Jo Nice,” in the parking lot of Ryan’s Pub after Gingerella tried to stop Hughes from beating his longtime female companion. Hughes fled and was captured two days after the shooting as he tried to walk over the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls, N.Y., into Canada. He was found guilty in July 2018 of first-degree manslaughter with a firearm and sentenced to 45 years in prison.

Hughes’ girlfriend, Latoya Knight, was sentenced in September 2019 to 30 days in prison for second-degree hindering prosecution. In the aftermath of the shooting, police said Knight, who was being beaten by Hughes before Gingerella and others stepped in, misled officers about Hughes’ identity when she was stopped as she attempted to leave the parking lot. Police said Knight also texted Hughes to tell him police were looking for him.

Some of Hughes’ relatives admitted on the witness stand at Hughes’ trial that they had helped him in the aftermath of the shooting, but Davenport denied his involvement, according to the state.

Testifying in his own defense at the trial, Hughes said he had run to his nearby residence on Waco Court after the shooting and called his brothers, sister and mother. One of the brothers, Brian Wright, who lived in the city’s Branford Manor apartment complex, picked up Hughes and drove him to the home of Hughes’ uncle, Shelton Rawls, and Rawls’ live-in girlfriend, former Norwich alderwoman Jacqueline Caron.

Hughes said he asked Rawls to cut his hair and stayed at the home until the sun came up. Hughes said Davenport arrived with a newly purchased cellphone for him and paid a friend, Michael Knowles, to drive Hughes to the Boston bus station.

One of the brothers gave Hughes $600, but it was unclear which brother had given him the money, according to police.