Witness: Victim was ‘violent, aggressive person’

NEW HAVEN — Keith Wylie, fatally stabbed by defendant Daniel Streit, was “a violent, aggressive person” who had threatened to kill Streit, according to a witness who testified Thursday in Streit’s first-degree manslaughter trial.

The defense witness, who was a client of the APT Foundation’s drug clinic, said he saw Wylie and Streit fight outside the Congress Avenue clinic a few days before their fatal encounter in the same spot Oct. 7, 2017.

The witness said he knew Wylie, nicknamed “Black,” and in a less familiar sense knew Streit, nicknamed “White boy,” because both of them hung around outside the APT Foundation entrance.

The witness recalled arriving at the clinic shortly after the stabbing on the morning of that event. He said he saw police putting up yellow crime scene tape.

But the witness said he did see the beginning of the first fight, which he estimated occurred about five days before the third fight, the stabbing.

“They were punching each other,” he said. “People started breaking it up. ‘Black’ said, ‘I’m gonna (expletive) kill you the next time I see you.’”

The witness said of Streit, “He was trying to walk away but ‘Black’ was more aggressive.”

According to the witness, the second fight happened a couple of days after the first one. He said he walked outside after it had occurred but they were still “screaming at each other.”

Again he recalled Wylie saying to Streit: “I’m gonna kill you.”

Over the objections of Assistant State’s Attorney Karen Roberg, Senior Assistant Public Defender Jeffrey LaPierre was allowed to let the jurors hear the witness testify that Wylie had “a reputation for violence.”

The witness recalled others at the APT Foundation advising him about Wylie: “Stay away from him. He’s no good. He’s trouble.”

The witness also recalled a time when “I refused to sell him (Wylie) my bottle (of methadone) and he got angry. He started cursing me out.”

The witness concluded about Wylie: “He was a violent, aggressive person.”

The man’s testimony lined up with LaPierre’s strategy of trying to show Streit was acting in selfdefense when he stabbed Wylie.

Before court adjourned Thursday, Superior Court Judge Elpedio N. Vitale asked Streit several questions about his decision not to testify on his own behalf. Streit said he had made that decision because “I don’t feel the need to.”