Video of shooting shown at court hearing
Evidence presented against one of two men accused of killing teen
STAMFORD — Prosecutors presented footage of the shooting that took the life of 16-year-old Marcus Hall at the probable cause hearing Thursday for a Stamford man accused of the killing.
Using video surveillance footage from various locations, including Riko’s Pizza, Matthew’s Bakery and the Salvation Army, Stamford Police officers reconstructed the scene of the crime, which occurred late at night on Sept. 20, 2018.
Footage showed a white Honda sedan driving around the crime scene before and after the shooting. Cameras also captured two men walking up to the location of the crime, and then later jumping a fence and running away.
In one of the videos, one of the men is shown firing five-to-seven shots, an estimate provided by Stamford Police investigator Louis Burdi. The video does not show Hall or anyone else besides the
two men.
Police believe the man who fired the gun is Isaias Delacruz, who was in court Thursday facing charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and carrying a pistol without a permit.
Hall, a Westhill High School student and aspiring skateboarder, was shot multiple times in the area of 62 Pequot Lane.
Burdi was one of the officers who arrived at the scene of the shooting. He said he spotted Hall, alive, on the ground when he showed up. Hall was transported to the hospital. Two days later, he died.
The investigation into the crime hinged on identifying the vehicle in the surveillance footage. Stamford Police officer Angel Gonzalez said that when he analyzed the videos, he noticed that the gas cap door on the car was black.
In November, Gonzalez said he spotted a white car with a similar gas door in Stamford and took down the car’s license plate. When he ran the registration, he came up with the name of a woman, who police later interviewed.
That woman, according to police, identified Delacruz and another man, Jonathan MonteroDelossantos, as two people who were in her car on the night of the shooting.
Montero-Delossantos, who state attorney Michelle Manning said goes by the nickname “John Gotti,” after the famed New York City mobster, was also charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder. His attorney waived his client’s right to a hearing of probable cause.
During a probable cause hearing, the state presents its evidence in a given case and a judge is called upon to decide if there is enough to justify a murder charge.
Local defense attorneys often do not request probable cause hearings, because the evidence presented during the hearing goes on to the record and is permanently preserved even if a witness dies or is not able to testify at the trial.
A woman who was in the car with the owner of the vehicle took the stand Thursday. She identified Montero-Delossantos as one of two men who got into the car and were dropped off in another location, only to return to the vehicle a few minutes later. The woman did not identify Delacruz.
Early in the hearing on Thursday, state attorneys called witness Corey Fields, 20, to the stand.
Before Fields’ testimony, state attorney Michelle Manning said that when Fields was issued a subpoena to appear in court, he crumpled the paper in an inspector’s face and indicated he would not be cooperative.
During the hearing, when presented with a copy of what appeared to be signed testimony he gave police, Fields said the testimony was not what he told police. He did acknowledge to Manning he did sign the document, however.
Once he was on the stand, Fields denied crumbling the subpoena, saying he still had the paper.
Delacruz’s probable cause hearing will continue Monday, as state attorneys plan to call one more witness.