New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Suspect in Snapchat killing pleads not guilty
MILFORD — A murder suspect who allegedly set up an Ansonia killing on Snapchat and rode away minutes later in an Uber pleaded not guilty in the case Wednesday.
The suspect, 17-year-old Monteral Crews, faces charges of murder, felony murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery, attempted first-degree robbery, and carrying a pistol without a permit in connection to the April 5 shooting death of Johnny Class on Hubbell Avenue Ansonia’s north end.
Crews has been behind bars since his arrest in the case in June, held in lieu of $1.5 million bond.
His lawyer has called the case largely circumstantial and promised a “vigorous” defense.
A probable cause hearing had been scheduled Wednesday for Crews and his attorneys to challenge the state’s evidence against him — a procedural requirement in cases where a defendant is charged with a crime such as murder for which the penalty could include life in prison. But Crews instead waived the hearing during a brief appearance before Judge H. Gordon Hall.
The judge questioned Crews and, because he is 17, his mother as well to make sure they understood the waiver, before his lawyer, Daniel Thibodeau, entered not guilty pleas on his behalf to all charges and said his client wants a jury trial.
Crews is scheduled to be brought back to court March 7, when detectives will take a DNA sample pursuant to a motion from the prosecutor in the case, Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Howard Stein.
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 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 was taken into custody by U.S. marshals in North Carolina a month after the shooting, is the only suspect who has been charged in the case.
“The investigation is still active and we are hoping to make additional arrests,” Ansonia Police Lt. Patrick Lynch said Wednesday.