Suspect who rejected plea deal now faces 45 years

BRIDGEPORT — A 19year-old man who rejected an offer to serve 35 years in prison in a fatal 2021 shooting now faces up to 45 years after being convicted at trial.

A jury deliberated in the case of Syshone Joyner for three days, breaking to hear portions of testimony from the fourday trial replayed, before finding him guilty Wednesday of first-degree manslaughter with a firearm and carrying a pistol without a permit.

The jury acquitted Joyner on charges of murder, felony murder, and attempted first-degree robbery.

Joyner's sentencing is scheduled for June 26. A co-defendant, Edwin Abrams of Stratford, pleaded guilty in the case to charges of conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree robbery, and faces up to 20 years at his sentencing this month.

The victim, 21-year-old Jamel Hayden, was found fatally shot in his car on Lincoln Avenue shortly after noon Aug. 28, 2021.

Police said Joyner and Abrams conspired to rob Hayden of $250 worth of marijuana after seeing the victim advertising cannabis on Snapchat and arranged to meet on Lincoln Avenue so Joyner could purchase $250 worth of marijuana.

But when Hayden pulled up at the designated meeting spot, he was met by four teens, the affidavit continues. One of the teens was examining the marijuana when Joyner pulled out a gun and shot the victim, the affidavit states. The teens then fled, police said.

Police said nearby surveillance video showed Joyner and three other young men clustered around Hayden's car at the time of the shooting. The teens then fled through backyards.

Joyner, 16 at the time, later bragged about the shooting, police said.

“I popped him, I popped him,” police said Joyner told friends.

During the four-day trial, which was prosecuted by Senior Assistant

State's Attorney Tiffany Lockshier before Judge Peter McShane, a jury of five men and seven women saw the surveillance footage played in court, and nearly 70 exhibits were introduced, with testimony from more than a dozen witnesses.

Joyner has been held in lieu of $1 million bond in the case since his arrest the month after the shooting.