Second suspect charged in Snapchat killing
MILFORD — Police have charged a second suspect in the killing of a Stratford man on Ansonia’s Hubbell Avenue last year that was allegedly set up on Snapchat.
Errol Salkey, 18, appeared at Superior Court in Milford Thursday on charges of felony murder, robbery and conspiracy in connection with the shooting death of Johnny Class April 5, 2022.
Salkey was initially charged as a juvenile because he was 17 at the time of the homicide, but his case was transferred to adult court.
On Thursday Judge Peter Brown appointed Public Defender John Walkley to represent Salkey, who is currently being held in lieu of more than $1 million bond.
Walkley asked the judge to continue the case so he could consult with Salkey and his family about whether or not to waive a probable cause hearing, a procedural requirement in murder cases, and review discovery materials from prosecutors.
“I’m going to need to meet with Mr. Salkey as well as his parents to make sure everyone is on the same page,” Walkley said.
The judge continued the case to a June 2 remote hearing.
Members of Salkey’s family who attended Thursday’s proceedings declined to comment afterward.
Salkey is the second defendant charged in the case – Monteral Crews, 18, was arrested the month after the killing.
Class was shot and killed while sitting in a car on Hubbell Avenue near Sixth Street about 12:47 p.m. April 5.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit written by Ansonia Police Detective Kristen Hunt, a friend of Class’ had used Snapchat to arrange the sale of an ounce and a half of marijuana for $300, with the buyer, named “Stickedup
Mont,” instructing them to go to an address on Ansonia’s Hubbell Avenue.
But when they pulled up, three men approached the vehicle, and one of them shot Class.
The warrant said that police made an “exigent circumstances” request to Snapchat, which told police the “Stickedup Mont” username was associated with Crews’ phone number.
Police talked to Crews later that night in his mother’s presence, according to the warrant. He denied any knowledge of the shooting and told detectives he had gone to a friend’s house and a cousin’s apartment after school that day before returning home and seeing police, then took an Uber ride to New Haven, where he kept a dirt bike.
But the warrant says police found surveillance footage depicting Crews and the two others walking toward the area before the shooting, then running away afterward. And while searching his cousin’s apartment, they found masks like the suspects wore.
A witness later picked out Crews in a photo array as the shooter, saying he was 90 percent sure.
Police also obtained a search warrant for Crews’ cell phone, from which location data seemed to match the movement of the three suspects depicted on the surveillance footage from the time and area of the shooting.
About two minutes after the shooting, according to the warrant, Crews’ cell phone used the Uber app to get picked up from down the street from the shooting to another address less than a half-mile away.
Crews, who is being held in lieu of $1.5 million bond in the case, is scheduled to return to court May 2.
“The investigation is still active and we are hoping to make additional arrests,” Ansonia Police Lt. Patrick Lynch said Thursday.