Murder victim Kentel Robinson.
Authorities caught up Thursday with a 22-year-old man accused of shooting to death 30-year-old Kentel Robinson on Chapel Street.
The 22-year-old man, who lives in Bridgeport, had been on the run since police obtained a warrant to arrest him for allegedly repeatedly shooting Robinson in the head and body on Chapel Street between Beers and Orchard Streets on Jan. 4 at around 9:30 p.m. Robinson, who had struggled to find housing and work in the months prior to his death, was put on life support at the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries three days later.
New Haven detectives developed a case against the 22-year-old alleged shooter — then couldn’t find him. They enlisted the help of U.S. marshals, who joined them in arresting the man in Bridgeport Thursday around 6 a.m. The man appeared in court later Thursday and is being held on a $2 million bond.
Robinson’s alleged shooter also had trouble finding housing, and was couch-surfing at the time of the killing, according to his arrest warrant’s affidavit. He allegedly shot Robinson during a dispute, according to the affidavit. It mentions an argument; it’s unclear what fully transpired.
The arrest warrant affidavit, written by case lead Detective Larnell Jackson and obtained by the Independent, describes how police built a case based on video surveillance of the actual shooting, two eyewitnesses’ testimonies, and the tracking down of clothing allegedly worn during the incident.
West Haven police helped New Haven crack the case, according to the affidavit.
The same night Robinson was pronounced dead, an armed robbery took place at the “Smokers” shop on First Avenue in West Haven. The two robbers wore clothing similar to what participants in Robinson’s murder wore.
West Haven police tracked down a Honda Accord used in the Smokers robbery. Plainclothes officers in an unmarked car found the Honda as it was being driven in West Haven on Jan. 10; they followed the car as they waited to obtain a search warrant. Before they got it, someone in the car shot at the cops and the driver sped away.
New Haven police later found the car outside an apartment in a Mandy Management-run building on Chapel Street not far from the murder scene. That led to a series of clues — surveillance footage, a pair of New Balance sneakers and puffy black jacket, interviews with people who knew the participants — that added up to the warrant, signed by a judge on March 13, for the 22-year-old’s arrest.
According to eyewitnesses, two men were walking on Chapel Street the night of the murder when they encountered Robinson, known as “Shooter,” sitting on a porch near Beers Street.
The encounter began with a hug, then turned into a verbal dispute beginning with an accusation of an unreturned PlayStation, then escalating from there. “Shoot that motherfucker!” said one participant, who pulled out a handgun and started firing.
Robinson ran from the porch. The other two men fled.
Detectives learned that the alleged shooter had been homeless for months, crashing with an aunt, stashing clothes at a girlfriend’s apartment. That information helped detectives gather more evidence for the case.
Killing a man over a unreturned Playstation... I simply don't understand what type of failure of upbringing can lead to such pettiness and lack of respect for the sanctity of human life.
A Playstation... My God.