A suburban pizzeria owner drove to New Haven’s Hill neighborhood with the hope of scoring a quarter ounce of marijuana.
He instead wound up murdering a friend-turned-dealer while shooting from the window of his truck at a group of men after the prospective drug deal turned into a hold up.
James Tobin, a 32-year-old Seymour resident who owns Tobin’s Pizza in Waterbury, confessed as much to New Haven police detectives Tuesday after city cops questioned him in regards to the shooting death of 28-year-old Milford resident Thomas Hart at Congress Avenue and Redfield Street on the night of May 21, according to a police report.
Tobin was arraigned in state Superior Court at 121 Elm St. Wednesday afternoon on the charge of murder. His bail bond has been set at $2 million, and his case was continued to June 18.
The Seymour suspect hasn’t entered a formal plea yet, but he did confess during an interview with city detectives David Zaweski and Paul D’Andrea to shooting and killing Hart, according to an eight-page affidavit included in an arrest warrant application prepared by D’Andrea and signed by state Superior Court Judge Jane Grossman. The affidavit and warrant do not mention a shooting that took place at the same corner in the Hill the night before.
Four Gunshots Fired In The Hill
The narrative in D’Andrea’s affidavit begins at 11:26 p.m. on May 21, when city police responded to the area near 17 Bond St. and 730 Congress Ave. in the Hill because of a ShotSpotter report of four shots fired: one on Bond Street and three on Congress.
Upon arrival at the scene, the officers found Hart unconscious and lying at the intersection of Congress and Redfield. Hart was transported to Yale New Haven Hospital for treatment of apparent gunshot wounds to his left side. A YNHH doctor pronounced him dead less than an hour later.
“The cause of death was certified as: gunshot wound of the trunk with perforation of lung and the manner of death was certified as a homicide,” D’Andrea writes.
City detectives dispatched to the scene found a “Hornady” 9mm grey metal fired cartridge case in a rear lot behind 17 Bond St. They didn’t find any fired cartridge cases near 730 Congress.
An employee at the nearby Columbus Towing told officers that he saw an older model burgundy pickup truck with its lights soon after the shooting took place in a lot near 499 Columbus Ave.
“The pickup truck left the lot on Bond Street,,” the affidavit reads, “which is a one-way street, the wrong way toward Congress Avenue.” Another witness on the scene told the officers and detectives that he had heard two gunshots coming from the area of Bond Street, then saw four men running east on Congress towards Redfield. He then saw a dark-colored pickup truck pursuing the group.
“The pickup truck stopped in the area of Congress Avenue and Redfield Street when he heard more gunshots,” D’Andrew writes, “which he believed came from the truck.” When the vehicle drove off, the witness said, he saw Hart lying in the street.
A surveillance video that detectives obtained from Congress Deli at 750 Congress Ave. showed a truck driving after four men on foot running down Congress Avenue at around 11:25 p.m., shortly after ShotSpotter’s first report of gunfire. Hart is one of those men, trying to keep up with the other three. As the truck catches up with and then passes Hart, the video shows Hart bending as if injured, and then collapsing in the street.
“A vehicle comes,” the affidavit reads, “a male exits and the male stays with Thomas Hart until police arrive.”
2 Witness Interviews, 2 Stories
A break in the case came a day after the shooting, when a 32-year-old New Haven man reached out to a captain with the state Department of Correction to say that he had been shot in the area of Congress Avenue. The man told the captain the license plate of the truck driven by the shooter.
The captain relayed that information to D’Andrea, who then checked the license against state Department of Motor Vehicles records. The 2002 red Dodge Ram pickup truck belonged to Tobin. A state pistol permit search revealed that Tobin has multiple guns registered to him, “including but not limited to a Smith & Wesson M&P SHIELD, serial number HDS0578, which is a 9mm.”
City detectives drove out to Seymour and identified the truck in Tobin’s driveway. The next day, another detective located the car in a Waterbury parking lot near Tobin’s Pizza.
During a May 22 voluntary interview with Zaweski and D’Andrea, the 32-year-old man told the detectives that he had been smoking marijuana with two friends on West Street the night of the shooting.
“While waiting to be picked up,” the affidavit reads, the man “claimed hearing two gunshots and the three ran from West Street to Congress Avenue and they ran by the store.”
He said he saw a Chevy Cobalt and a red truck following them. He heard the truck screech, then more gunshots, and “saw ‘sparks’ coming from the truck.”
D’Andrea showed the man a photograph of Hart, and mansaid the two had recently been patients at the APT Foundation methadone clinic together approximately four months prior. The man “stated Thomas Hart was not with the group that” he was in, the affidavit reads.
On May 23, city detectives and two city officers visited 121 Dewitt St. in search of one of the men the witness said he was with the night of the shooting. This man had several outstanding warrants out for his arrest, the affidavit states.
The city police didn’t initially find this second man at his residence, after getting permission to search the home from Smith’s mother. But they did find a “Hi Point C9” 9mm handgun, as well as a man named Gary.
Gary refused to hand over his phone to the officers, but, when they remanded him to DOC custody for violating conditions of his transitional supervision by not cooperating with the officers, Gary gave up the phone and his passcode.
The phone held a video of Gary “waving around a handgun,” as well as a text conversation that he had with someone regarding “setting up a meet-up that involved cash, a ‘fein’ and later that someone got ‘left in the lot.’”
During that same visit, the officers found the second witness in the basement of his Dewitt Street home. They filed and got signed a search and seizure warrant, and found a “Hi Point” 9mm handgun loaded with seven rounds. State police later determined that the shell casing found at the scene of the murder did not correspond to the rounds in his handgun.
The detectives interviewed the second witness the night of May 23. He told them several versions about what happened the night of the murder. The one he settled on, according the police, was that he had been talking with a girl and two other people in a courtyard near 17 Bond St. He heard arguing nearby, and then a gunshot. He ran down Congress towards Redfield, when he saw a pickup truck chasing the group.
“When they ran on Redfield Street he head three gunshots coming from the area of Congress Avenue and Redfield Street,” the affidavit reads. “He cut through yards and ended up at his home” on Dewitt Street.
Closing In
Meanwhile, city police continued to conduct surveillance on Tobin.
“They noted that he had put a ‘For Sale’ sign, along with his phone number, on the 2002 Dodge Ram and later, on the evening of May 27, 2019, left the truck parked behind the pizza restaurant he owns in Waterbury, CT.” The next day, Tobin met with another man near his pizza restaurant, who drove Tobin’s truck to a municipal parking garage in Waterbury and left the car there.
After securing a search warrant from Grossman on May 25, New Haven and Waterbury officers apprehended Tobin at his restaurant on Tuesday, detained him in handcuffs, and removed the handgun he had on his person.
When the officers determined that that handgun was not the Smith & Wesson 9mm, they uncuffed him and explained to him that he was not under arrest at that time, and asked him to voluntarily speak with the officers at the Waterbury Police Department.
Tobin agreed. Upon arriving at the department, he first denied being in New Haven the night of the shooting. Then he confessed, in detail, exactly why and how he shot and killed Hart, according to the affidavit.
Confession
Tobin said he contacted Hart via Facebook Messenger on May 21 looking to buy a quarter ounce of marijuana.
“James, who was friends with the victim, noticed the victim often posting pictures of him using marijuana on his facebook page,” the affidavit reads.
Tobin and Hart exchanged phone numbers and, Tobin said, Hart told him to drive to Vernon Street near Congress Avenue to make the purchase.
When Tobin arrived in his Dodge Ram pick-up truck, he found Hart with another man, skinny and bearded.
Hart and the third man entered Tobin’s truck. The man told Tobin he didn’t have the marijuana on him, and directed Tobin to “drive and park on Congress Avenue by the John C. Daniels School to pick up two friends” of the man with the beard.
Tobin did so, and the two other men entered his truck as well.
The first man who came with Hart then instructed Tobin to drive to a parking lot on Bond Street. Upon parking, Tobin said, the bearded man exited the front passenger seat of the truck and went around the corner to retrieve the marijuana. Hart, Tobin, and the other two men stayed in the car.
When the bearded man came back, he entered the car and told Tobin to turn on the truck’s interior light. When he did, Tobin saw the bearded man pointing a gun at him. Tobin said the man demanded he hand over “everything” Tobin had.
Then, Tobin said, one of the other men sitting in the back seat of the truck pointed another gun at Tobin. The bearded man went through Tobin’s pockets, he said, and took cash, two phones, and a backpack with a deposit bag containing $2,000 from the restaurant.
The three men and Hart then fled the truck.
“James said he then un-holstered his Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun and fired a single shot in the direction of the group as they fled into the courtyard of the housing complex at this location,” the affidavit reads. “James said the discharged shell casing went onto the roof of his truck and was left behind on the scene.
“James said he re-entered his truck and was ‘seeing red’ because he was upset. James said he drove out of the parking lot on Bond Street, driving the wrong-way on Bond Street towards Congress Avenue towards the direction he believed the group was running towards. James said he made a right turn from Bond Street onto Congress avenue, almost hitting a vehicle stopped at the corner. James said as turned onto Congress Avenue he saw the same four individuals that were sitting in his truck and had just robbed him, running on Congress Avenue.
“James said he drove towards the group and fired three more gun shots, out of his passenger window with his Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm handgun, at the group as they ran up Congress Avenue.”
Tobin said he then drove home to Seymour, threw in the trash two shell casings and bag left behind by one of his alleged robbers, and stored his handgun in a cabinet next to his refrigerator. City police found the shell casings, the bag, and the gun upon executing the search and seizure warrant.
“James said he learned through the news that he had shot and killed the victim.”
When the detectives asked Tobin to further describe the men he said had robbed him, Tobin decided to stop the interview and speak with an attorney before continuing with any more interviews with the police. “At this time we ended our interview with James Tobin Jr.”
Tobin “is not a convicted felon and has a valid State of Connecticut Pistol Permit,” the affidavit concludes. “In addition, a records check confirmed that James Tobin Jr. was not incarcerated at the time of this homicide.
“Wherefore, your affiant believes that probable cause exists that James Tobin Jr. ... did commit the crimes of Murder in violation of Connecticut General Statutes 53a-54a.”
Shoulda lawyered up, buddy.