Lisa Craggett, mother of New Haven gun violence victim Jacob Craggett, appearing in True Conviction episode.
Eight years after a murder upended their lives, members of a New Haven family are about to tell their story to a national audience.
The family’s story is highlighted in the season four premiere of Investigation Discovery’s crime docu-series True Conviction, which airs on ID and discovery+ this Tuesday at 10 p.m.
The episode, “A Generational Curse,” centers on the murder of 15-year old Jacob Craggett, who was shot outside of his grandmother’s home in the Hill in August of 2014.
Craggett’s mother Lisa, older brother Joshua, and cousin Shayna Kendall, sat down for interviews with series host Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, a former Brooklyn homicide prosecutor.
Craggett’s mother told Nicolazzi about the youngest of her five sons, Jacob.
“He was funny, he was the class clown and a gentle giant. He used to call me Mama Lili. ‘Mama Lili, where’s my dinner?’ ” his mother recalled.
“We live in ‘the hood,’ but to me it’s not exactly where you live, it’s how you live too. I always told my sons, ‘You’re young, you’re going to make mistakes. Don’t ever make the mistake of the police knocking my door down because you’ve gone and took somebody’s life,’ ” Jacob’s mother said.
Jacob Craggett's football recruitment video, as shown in True Crime fourth season premiere episode "A Generational Curse."
It was a Friday evening in August when Jacob and his older brother Joshua were shot in a car outside of their grandmother’s house on Vernon Street. That same evening their cousin, Shayna Kendall, was on duty as a detective in the New Haven Police Department.
“What caught my attention was the location, which was Vernon Street,” Kendall said. “When I first got the call, I had no idea who it was. When we got to the hospital, I was told that two of my cousins were shot.”
The news of the incident brought back the memory of another tragedy in the family that occurred 10 years earlier on the same street, in which Kendall’s brother Jason also fell victim to gun violence. Kendall’s brother had been playing with his cousins at their grandmother’s house on Vernon Street when he was approached on the porch. As he began to retreat into the house, he was shot in the back.
Lisa Craggett, mother to Jacob and Joshua and aunt to Kendall and brother Jason, ran down the street to Jason’s aid that night in 2004. “He pleaded not to let him die.” Kendall said the news of Jason’s passing was “life-changing” for the entire family.
“When Jason died, I was lost, and I felt defeated. I felt that life was not worth living because, in any given moment you can be standing on the porch at your grandmother’s house and get shot.” She said the following investigation motivated her decision to pursue a career in law enforcement.
“I can’t talk about the loss of my brother without talking about the detectives who worked so hard to bring justice to the person who killed my brother. When I was at a place of not knowing what to do with my life, it was those interactions that spoke to me to say, ‘Here I am, from this city. I want to do and be exactly what these detectives chose to be for my family.’ ”
In March of 2014, Kendall was promoted to detective, where she said it was her mission to give grieving families “the same support” that she received.
Shayna Kendall on True Conviction discussing the gun violence tragedies that took the lives of her brother and cousin.
Kendall joined her aunt Lisa Craggett in the hospital the night that Joshua and Jacob were shot. “[Lisa’s] youngest was no longer here. As one can expect, she completely broke down, and she was not the same. She just was not the same,” Kendall said.
That night, Jacob died and Joshua survived. For Tuesday night’s TV epsiode, Joshua recalled the moment, as shots began firing at their car, with Joshua in the passenger seat, Jacob in the back, and cousin TJ driving.
“Everything happened so fast. I turned around to the back seat and threw Jacob down. And then, as I’m trying to see, I got shot in the back.
“Shots kept going off, so I kinda made peace with what I thought was gonna happen. I was just ready.”
After the shots seemed to cease, Jacob exited the car to help Joshua out, and Jacob was shot in the back.
After Joshua woke up in the hospital, he asked about his brother: “The first thing I said, they heard me say his name, and then everybody started crying. It’s a lotta guilt to hold, man.”
He felt survivor’s guilt.
“When Josh came home from the hospital, I just heard him bawling, just breaking down,” his mother Lisa said. “And I went back there, and I held him, and he was like, ‘Ma, do you blame me?’ I said, ‘No, son. It’s not your fault. No, I don’t blame you, Josh. No I don’t. And you can’t blame yourself.’ ”
Jacbo Craggett's older brother Joshua recalling the murder, on True Conviction.
The True Conviction episode also details how now-retired homicide detective Mike Wuchek pursued the case and built a case against a suspect. In December of 2016, a jury found Lamont Edwards guilty of first-degree murder and was sentenced to 85 years in prison. Police have yet to identify another shooter at the scene that night.
Eight years after losing Jacob Craggett, and 18 years after losing Jason Kendall, the family continues to grieve and reflect on the loss of their loved ones.
“He was a kind, respectful, human being. It’s not telling how far he would’ve gone. He was a good kid. I’m going to honor my son’s name, talk to people, talk to teens, you know, do whatever I can to contribute what I’ve gone through to try and help someone else,” Lisa Craggett said of her son.
“When I think of both of them, I think of their spirit and their personalities. I don’t think of how they were murdered or what we had to endure with the system. So I reflect on exactly how I remember them, not so much their death,” Kendall said.
The episode ends with an appeal to viewers to help police with the investigation: “If you or anyone you know out there holds that key, the last piece of the puzzle of the identity of the second person, bring it to police so that Jacob Craggett’s homicide case can finally be closed.”
Above is the trailer for "A Generational Curse," the season four New Haven-centered premiere episode of True Conviction.
It is so important to remember that victims of violence have loved ones left behind who need answers. The loss of a loved one stayed with you always. I myself have lost two friends to senseless violence in the city over the years.
If anyone knows anything that may help to put a shooter/murderer behind bars, please come forward. Who knows how many more victims have been shot or killed by these perpetrators? Who knows how many lives could have been saved by getting them off the street?