Pair charged two years after woman was slain on her porch

New Haven — The arrest of two alleged members of the notorious Exit 8 gang in connection with the July 5, 2021, homicide of Ciera Jones, who was shot on Truman Street in the city’s Hill section at age 22, won’t bring her back.

But both her birth mother and her adoptive parents thanked police and federal agents for all their work over two years to crack the case and said the arrests of Tyjon “TJ” Preston, 21, and Antwan “Bandz” Hill, 19, does give them something they didn’t previously have.

Both men were charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

“She brought us much joy, and the day that her life was taken ... was one of the saddest days of our lives,” said Carolyn Whitfield, Jones’ adoptive mother, standing next to Jones’ adoptive father, Eddie Whitfield, at a press conference on the third floor of police headquarters. More than a dozen relatives also attended the event.

While Jones, known to those close to her as “Cece,” was not perfect, “she was beginning to turn her life around ... but she left us too soon,” Carolyn Whitfield said.

“She was a good girl. She was a happy girl,” yet “she was murdered in cold blood and her death has left us with a hole in our hearts that can never be filled,” Whitfield said.

“I know that no amount of punishment can ever bring Ciera back. But I am grateful that they got her killers,” she said.

Police Chief Karl Jacobson said his message to the community in the wake of the arrests was “help us, and we will get other people ... and put the guns down.”

Jones’ birth mother, Darlene Galberth — who was steps away when Jones was shot on her porch near the corner of Truman and Clover streets — said her daughter “was such a beautiful, beautiful little girl.”

The last time she saw Jones was just 15 minutes before she died.

“I heard what I thought were fireworks” and went out and “looked to my left on my porch and I saw my baby lying on the ground with a hole in her head,” Galberth said.

Jones was lucky enough to have “two moms, not one, that she loved,” Galberth said.

Galberth also thanked everyone involved in making the arrests.

Jones was the 16th homicide victim of 2021. She was found still alive and in critical condition at 71 Truman St. She died two days later.

Jacobson told Jones’ family that “it’s very important for us to hear from the family so she is not forgotten.” He said the latest arrests resulted from a series of federal grand jury indictments last week.

Three additional alleged Exit 8 members are charged with conspiring to engage in a pattern of racketeering, including drug trafficking, murder, and attempted murder, the Justice Department previously announced. A grand jury previously indicted six alleged Exit 8 members and associates in March.

All together, the nine people charged allegedly were responsible for three killings and 15 shootings, Jacobson said.

“This is an extremely violent group,” he said. “This case is going to help us significantly reduced the amount of violence in the city.”

In one of the arrests last week, two guns were seized and “those two guns came back to 13 different shooting incidents in our city, the last one being on Aug. 1,” Jacobson said.

Assistant Chief Bertram Ettienne thanked for family for their patience and told them, “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Mayor Justin Elicker offered the family “my deepest, deepest condolences” and said that while “we can’t bring her back,” the city is there to support them.

Elicker also thanked the law enforcement officers present, saying, “it’s so clear how hard you are working with the number of guns you are taking off the street.”