Warrant: Slaying of city man motivated by debt

Police believe feud over $600 led to killing of Stamford man

STAMFORD — Police believe a 20-yearold New York man shot and killed a city resident in December over an unpaid debt of $600, according to an arrest warrant.

And they praised the detectives and officers who traced what happened before and after the night Jeffery Vanech was shot to death for their work while explaining the intricacies of modern detection.

Ernest Rosario, 20, was arrested following a brief struggle with a patrol officer near the Stamford Train Station on Sept. 16.

He was charged with murder, carrying a firearm without a permit, possession of a high-capacity magazine, interfering with police, possession of narcotics, possession of narcotics with intent to sell and operating a drug factory.

He was held on a $2.5 million bond for the murder charge, and an additional $250,000 bond for the other charges. At his court date on Thursday, his case was continued with his next appearance set for Oct. 18. Rosario has no listed lawyer.

Stamford officer Nick Spinella writes in the arrest warrant that Rosario, who also allegedly goes by the names “Bronx” and “Wheez,” was “a drug/gun dealer” and “a friend/associate” of Vanech, a 49-year-old who was fatally shot on Dec. 7, 2020, in the city’s South End.

Vanech would lend Rosario, who lives in the Bronx, his mother’s vehicle, or would drive him to and from the city in return for “money and/or drugs to fuel his habit,” according to the warrant.

But the described arrangement between Rosario and Vanech allegedly soured in the months leading up to the 49-year-old’s homicide, Spinella wrote.

The warrant states Vanech owed Rosario up to $600, and that Rosario was allegedly out to “get him” over that debt.

The night before he was killed, Vanech was allegedly attacked by four of Rosario’s friends outside a South End bodega, according to the warrant. During the attack, Vanech lost his keys, phone and wallet, the warrant said.

“(A) person in the South End told him (Vanech) that he had better chill out because on the previous night, they were looking to kill him. This person told him that someone had a gun and they were trying to lure him away from the bodega,” Spinella writes in the warrant.

The incident was not reported to police at the time.

The next day Vanech went back to the area where he was attacked in search of his belongings, the warrant states. It was during that trip that Vanech was shot and killed, according to police.

Shortly after 5:20 p.m. Dec. 7, police responded to the corner of Henry and Cedar streets, where they found a man later identified as Vanech suffering from multiple gunshot wounds outside of the driver’s side of his car. Vanech was transported to the hospital where he died.

As part of their investigation, officers searched the residence of Freddie Hicks, a city man who lived nearby, police said.

During a search of Hicks’ residence, police recovered a black fanny pack containing a revolver, a social services card belonging to Vanech, a long gray cellphone charger and a small bag of crack cocaine.

The revolver recovered in the bag was later confirmed to be the weapon used in Vanech’s killing, police said.

Hicks was charged with criminal possession of a firearm, second-degree hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence, all felonies. He is still being held in lieu of $500,000 bond and is next expected in court on Oct. 4.

According to the warrant, hours before he was killed, Vanech told a family member that he “was scared and wanted to move out of his mother’s home” because he felt he was being hunted by Rosario and Rosario knew where Vanech lived.

Cellphone data obtained via a search warrant later determined that Rosario was “in close proximity” to where Vanech was shot and killed at the time of the homicide, according to the warrant.

Based on the cellphone data and the relationship between Rosario and Vanech, detectives began looking at Rosario as a “person of interest,” police said.

What followed was a “lengthy and complicated investigation,” according to Capt. Richard Conklin, the commander of Stamford’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations.

“This was a really cutting-edge investigation by our investigators,” Conklin said.

Investigators ultimately used cellphone data, social media data, homeland security information, forensic analysis and surveillance footage to build a case against Rosario, Conklin said.

Investigators tracked down Rosario’s Facebook accounts, one which was deleted on Dec. 8 — a day after Vanech’s homicide — and a second that was started weeks later on Christmas, Conklin said.

Chats obtained through a search warrant show Rosario asking a friend “for a favor” less than 90 minutes before Vanech was fatally shot.

Then, starting about 90 minutes after Vanech was attacked, Rosario’s Facebook account searched the name “Jeff Vanech” eight times — all before police publicly confirmed that Vanech had been shot and killed, according to the warrant. His search history also included two searches for the name “Freddie Hicks” in that time frame.

Based on cell tower data obtained via a search warrant, police determined that in the six months leading up to the homicide, Rosario spent an average of about 20 days per month in Stamford.

This “long and established pattern of behavior,” however, changed on Dec. 7, the day Vanech was killed, the warrant said.

Dec. 7 was the last known time Rosario was in Stamford, according to the phone data and confidential sources of the Stamford Narcotics and Organized Crime unit, the warrant said.

Investigators also noted that starting on Dec. 9, Rosario stopped using cellular service, or service provided through cell towers, and instead started using Wi-Fi to communicate, the warrant said.

A search warrant for Rosario’s iPhone and all his iCloud information also showed that the 20-year-old sold his phone the day after Vanech’s slaying.

“Investigators believe that this was an overt effort by Rosario to prevent his phone, and any evidence therein, from being confiscated by law enforcement,” the warrant said.

Surveillance footage from a MetroNorth Railroad train shows Rosario two hours before the shooting as he heads to Connecticut from New York wearing all dark clothing, similar to the clothes eyewitnesses described the shooter as wearing, and carrying a fanny pack consistent with the bag they later found in Hicks’ residence.

In the footage, Rosario is also seen using a non-standard length phone charger similar to a cord that was also found in the fanny pack obtained from Hicks, the warrant said.

Information obtained via the Department of Homeland Security also shows that, two days after Vanech’s death, Rosario purchased a plane ticket from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

“Rosario’s altered pattern of life, changes in cell phone pattern of usage, effort to prevent evidence seizure and travel outside of the continental United States” all point to “Rosario’s consciousness of guilt,” Spinella writes in the warrant.

A forensic analysis of the murder weapon found DNA on its trigger that is “at least 1.8 billion times more likely” to have originated from Rosario and one unknown individual than if it originated from two unknown individuals, Spinella writes in the warrant.

Last week, Conklin praised the Major Crimes Unit’s C Squad including Sgts. Jennifer Lynch, Will Garay and Chris Dicarlo and Officers Michael Longo, Charlie Williams, Luis Velez, Michael Spinosa, Leo Brace, Luis Vidal and Spinella for their contributions to Rosario’s arrest.

“The Department hopes that this arrest will assist the Vanech family in getting closure and a sense of justice for the tragedy they have endured,” Conklin said.