Suspects Arrested In Ciera Jones’ Murder

Carolyn Whitfield was grocery shopping for a big family cookout when she heard the news that her 22 year-old-daughter, Ciera Jones, had been shot and killed outside her house in the Hill.

That barbecue never happened. Whitfield instead reunited with a crowd of family and friends two years later inside the New Haven Police Department — to hail the arrests of Jones’ suspected killers as a step towards justice served.

Roughly 20 of Jones’ loved ones convened alongside Mayor Justin Elicker, Police Chief Karl Jacobson, and representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to announce that two young men affiliated with the city’s ​“Exit 8” gang have been taken into federal custody and charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

The pair, aged 19 and 22, were arrested alongside a third individual on Aug. 3 as part of a broader indictment of that gang, six other members of whom were arrested prior to March in connection to a pattern of racketeering activity including drug trafficking, murder and attempted murder, among other offenses. Read more about that here.

Two of those three men are now suspected in particular of conspiring to kill Ciera Jones on July 5, 2021. On that afternoon, Jones was shot in the head in broad daylight outside her home at the intersection of Clover Place and Truman Street, not far from a community garden. She was rushed to the hospital but succumbed to her injuries two days later. 

“I was grocery shopping for a cookout and all the kids were gonna come over,” Jones’ adoptive mother, Carolyn Whitfield, recalled during the presser. ​“It was one of the saddest days of our lives.”

“She was beginning to turn her life around,” Whitfield said, remembering how her daughter had recently approached her to talk about her ​“deepest thoughts and needs, about how she wanted to be a better person.”

“She was murdered in cold blood and her death has left a hole in our hearts that will never be filled. I know no amount of punishment will bring Ciera back, but I am grateful they got her killer and he will never be able to hurt anyone else.”

Darlene Galberth, Jones’ birth mother, also remembered the day Jones was murdered: ​“I seen my baby laying on the ground with a hole in her head,” she mourned, describing the violent scene observed by many after Jones was publicly shot on the sunny afternoon. ​“That I will never forget — how a person came in and just took her beautiful life.”

Asst. Chief Bertram Ettienne said that both suspects are believed to have fired bullets, and it is unclear at this point who may have actually committed the murder. Therefore, both are currently charged with conspiring to kill rather than with murder itself.

After ballistic evidence and vehicles suspected for involvement in the case were found at the scene, the case was turned over to the U.S. Attorney’s office as part of a larger investigation of the ​“Exit 8” gang.

“This is an extremely violent group,” Chief Jacobson said Thursday. During the latest trio of arrests of gang associates last Thursday, he said police seized two more guns off the streets which could be relayed back to 13 different shootings, including one having taken place as recently as Aug. 1.

He noted the young ages of the two individuals suspected of Jones’ murder. Of one the 19-year-old, he said, ​“I’ve been to his house personally five or six times, trying to get him out of this life. But now he’s charged with conspiracy to commit murder.”

Of Jones, Jacobson said, ​“I knew her personally and it’s hard. When we lose someone so young in the community, it’s extremely hard.”