Man acquitted of murder in death of girlfriend
Convicted on two firearm possession counts
HARTFORD – A Hartford Superior Court jury Monday acquitted Torrick Maragh, 24, of murder and several manslaughter charges in connection with the shotgun death of his girlfriend, Nasashalie Hoy, three years ago in the basement of a Broad Street house.
The eightwoman, f ourman jury deliberated about a day before reaching its verdict on the most serious charges against Maragh. The jury did convict Maragh of two counts of illegal possession of a sawed-off shotgun and he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced March 28.
A large group of Hoy’s family and friends attended each day of the trial, but were so upset by the verdict they left the courtroom. Maragh’s family embraced his defense attorneys, Steven Slattery of Hartford and Jason Messina of New Haven. It was Slattery’s and Messina’s first murder trial.
“I think that the system worked in this case,” Slattery said. “I think that based on the circumstances, the jury came to the result that was warranted.” The defense maintained that Hoy, 18, accidentally shot herself with Maragh’s sawedoff shotgun.
“I don’t really know what happened in that room,” Slattery said. Maragh told Hartford police detectives that Hoy shot herself when an argument the pair was having turned physical. Maragh has been jailed since the fatal shooting.
Prosecutor David Zagaja argued to jurors that Maragh’s story of what happened was not plausible, based upon the testimony of the medical examiner. The trajectory of the shotgun blast was down into Hoy’s body, he said in closing arguments, and not as described by Maragh.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner also ruled Hoy’s death a homicide, not suicide.
Zagaja suggested to jurors that Maragh shot Hoy because he was angry she was seeing another man. The argument was over access to her cellphone, on which she had texted the other man, Zagaja said.