The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
New details emerge in shooting
Warrant: Secret GPS tracker led authorities to suspect in Middletown homicide
MIDDLETOWN — The mother and girlfriend of a city man accused of a shooting that killed one person and injured another in May have been charged with interfering with a police investigation after detectives obtained surveillance footage from inside their home, court records show.
Matthew O'Banner, 20, is facing charges of murder and first-degree assault for the May 16 shooting that killed 25-year-old Tylon Hardy and injured another individual, who was 17 at the time, officials said. O'Banner originally agreed to turn himself in to Middletown police, but then vanished for two months before being caught in New Jersey, records show.
Michelle Sanders, O'Banner’s 54-year-old mother, and his girlfriend, 21-yearold Alexandra Vazquez, were also arrested in August and charged with interfering with police. Sanders is also charged with second-degree hindering prosecution, tampering with evidence and drug possession, records show.
The warrant for Sanders said footage captured the dispute leading up to the shooting, and the family’s deliberations afterward on how to cover up their involvement.
According to court records released last week, Middletown detectives and U.S. Marshals secretly tracked Sanders’ car to an apartment in North Bergen, N.J., where marshals took
him into custody in early August.
O'Banner was extradited to Connecticut and arraigned on Aug. 24. A judge ordered him held on $2 million bond and he was scheduled to appear next week in Middletown court.
Court documents in his case remain sealed.
According to the arrest warrant for Sanders, police were dispatched to a shooting that occurred in the area of Stirling Street just before 11 a.m. on May 16. When they arrived, they found Hardy unresponsive, suffering from a gunshot wound and bleeding from his mouth and ears, the warrant said.
The warrant said Hardy was pronounced dead approximately 15 minutes later. Police were also notified of a second victim, who was 17 years old, who arrived at Middlesex Hospital in a private vehicle. He had two gunshot wounds in his back and one in his forearm, according to the warrant.
According to the warrant, the teen was flown to Hartford Hospital, where he later told a detective he was on Stirling Court when he heard an argument involving multiple people. As he walked closer, the warrant said, the teen heard gunshots and was shot running from the area.
The warrant shows investigators recovered a black Taurus 9mm handgun, shell casings, shoes, a hat and prescription eye glasses from the area, according to court documents.
When police spoke with Sanders at her home, she said she had not seen her son since earlier that morning and that he was with Vazquez. She denied knowing about the shooting near her property, the warrant read.
Detectives later spoke with Vazquez, who told investigators that a person had threatened her and O'Banner, telling her “they were all pulling up” on her boyfriend’s house, according to the warrant. She told investigators that she, O'Banner, their child and Sanders were all at the Stirling Court home, but claimed she did not know where he went after the shooting, the warrant shows.
Police were also given video evidence from nearby residents, the warrant said. One video showed a group in a verbal dispute in the area when a man emerged from the Stirling Court home and opened fire. The warrant said the videos showed Hardy get shot, the crowd scatter and cars, including a Honda registered to Vazquez, peel out in all directions.
Surveillance video from another resident showed a silver Nissan fleeing and a man walking south with what appeared to be a black firearm in his hand, the warrant stated.
When the Honda drove by, the warrant said, this man turned and pointed the firearm in the direction of the vehicle. The warrant said officers could not determine whether he fired the weapon. Sanders declined to let detectives search her home, the warrant said. As investigators worked to secure a warrant, Sanders tried to take a black backpack from the property, the warrant said, but officers stopped her and took the backpack back to the home, according to the warrant. Investigators said it was later found to contain crack cocaine and heroin.
When they searched the home, officers found evidence indicating O'Banner lived at the residence, as well as a Kel-Tec firearms box in what they believed to be his room, the warrant said.
The warrant said police also found several security cameras inside the house linked through Google Nest and Xfinity. The warrant said an officer sent a preservation request to Xfinity’s parent company to ask that the company keep all records associated with the address.
Investigators obtained the video and corresponding audio from the incident, which show Vazquez and Sanders knew O'Banner was responsible for the shooting, according to the warrant.
In the video, both women pleaded with O'Banner to not confront the person who made the threat after he had called to warn that he and his acquaintances would be coming to the house, the warrant said.
“If he comes here do not do that, none of that ... you have a son to think about,” an indoor camera captured Vazquez telling O'Banner, according to the warrant. “Do not do that, he has one, too . ... You guys don’t need to do that.”
Moments later, O'Banner emerged from the garage wearing clothes that matched evidence found at the property next door and ran upstairs, the warrant said.
When Sanders mentioned calling the police, O'Banner is heard on camera saying: “What are you talking about, I have mad illegal stuff here ... don’t do that, that’s dumb, you’re gonna get me arrested doing that,” according to the warrant.
Three minutes later, O'Banner exited the front door and onto the porch, where audio recorded gunshots ringing out, according to court documents. He then fled and Vazquez ran back into the home, shouting “he’s going to jail” and “he’s dead, somebody call the cops,” the warrant said.
As police arrived, Vazquez’s mother and sister came into the home, the warrant shows. The document said the women discussed how neighbors witnessed the shooting.
Approximately 30 minutes after the shooting, the video appeared to capture Vazquez on the phone with O'Banner, according to the warrant.
“Where are you?” she said, according to court records. “Tylon is dead.”
One of the women, the documents said, could be heard yelling from another room that O'Banner should ditch the gun in the river, another referenced erasing everything.
“This is crazy, I feel like I’m living in a movie,” Sanders said before the video feed cuts out.
Video footage stops at 11:42 p.m., which detectives took to mean the rest of the security camera video was erased manually from one of the control hubs inside the home, according to the warrant.
Tracking cars
Middletown police obtained an arrest warrant charging O'Banner with murder at the end of May, and an attorney for him advised authorities that he would voluntarily surrender, court documents show. Though they agreed to meet at the lawyer’s office on June 14, O'Banner did not show, according to arrest records.
On June 22, the warrant said, Middletown police asked the U.S. Marshals for help locating him. Sanders, who owns an Audi Q5, was given a loaner vehicle from a New York dealership while hers was being serviced, the warrant read.
Marshals learned the loaner vehicle regularly transmits its location whenever the engine is shut off. Those transmissions showed Sanders visited the North Bergen, N.J., address of an acquaintance of O'Banner at the end of June.
Marshals secretly placed a GPS tracker in Sanders vehicle in the beginning of July while it was at the dealership and began tracking it when she picked it up, the warrant said. Meanwhile, marshals set up a camera for live-surveillance feed at the New Jersey address.
Early the next day, marshals spotted O'Banner, Vazquez and Sanders entering the apartment. The warrant said marshals took O'Banner into custody later that morning.
O'Banner remains in custody and is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday. Sanders posted a $250,000 bond and was released. Vazquez was released on a promise to appear in court. Both are scheduled to appear in court later this month.