After stumbling her way out of East Rock Park into a stranger’s driveway, the victim of a brutal assault found her way into the arms of a police officer.
“Hold my hand,” she begged him. “I’m scared. Is he here?”
That account came from one of a series of witnesses who testified Monday at state Superior Court on Church Street, the first day of a jury trial in one of the most chilling New Haven crimes in recent memory.
Hamden Police Officer Eric Hallstrom gave that testimony to eight jurors, prosecutors, and defense attorneys. Hoff was one of six people state prosecutor Stacey Miranda presented to Judge David Gold to testify against Jose Angel Moreno-Hernandez.
The defendant is accused of raping and nearly killing a downtown New Haven waitress after she gave him a ride home from their workplace at Temple Grille on March 27, 2009. The assault drew an outpouring of support from the downtown community and beyond, and raised concerns about safety in the workplace.
Moreno-Hernandez entered the Courtroom 5B at 10:40 a.m. Monday wearing a dark gray sweater with red stripes, black slacks, handcuffs and leg chains. Marshals removed his handcuffs before the jury filed in.
He uttered only two words during the five hours of proceedings: “Not guilty.” He spoke them in Spanish to a translator.
He has pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges: five counts of first-degree sex assault, one count each of first-degree kidnapping and attempted murder, and two counts of first-degree assault. Combined, the charges carry a sentence of up to life in prison.
The trial came about after the defense and prosecution failed to come to agreement on a plea deal, according to public defender Tejas Bhatt. Facing a steep sentence, the defense chose to cast its luck with a jury instead.
Six jurors and two alternates reported to the small courtroom Monday morning. About 20 spectators filed into the room, filling four short benches in the public gallery.
The day’s proceedings gave a glimpse of difficult days ahead.
Supporters shed tears, and even the judge looked queasy, when Miranda presented photos from the crime scene.
The most graphic image showed the victim’s clothing strewn on top of leaves in a wooded area of East Rock Park, near a puddle of blood and a blood-covered stick that was used in the assault.
Officer Hallstrom, the first officer on the scene, described how he responded to an early-morning call and found the distraught woman outside a home on Ridge Road.
Hallstrom testified he was working the midnight shift that night. He was dispatched around 3:40 a.m. to a house right across the street from East Rock Park on Ridge Road. As he entered the driveway, using his cruiser lights to illuminate the area, he saw a woman wearing a hoodie with her back to him.
“Police!” he yelled, and she spun around. Her clothes were falling off. With her hands outstretched toward him, the woman stumbled to Hallstrom and fell into his arms.
Hallstrom said the victim told him she was raped and beaten by Moreno-Hernandez, a co-worker who she only knew by the name Angel. She’d driven him home after they worked the closing shift at Temple Grille. She was a waitress; he was a busboy.
A bartender at the restaurant, Richard Rinaldi, testified Monday that he’d served Moreno-Hernandez a beer that night before locking up and walking the woman to her car. As Rinaldi said good night to the woman and walked to his own car, the two saw Moreno-Hernandez walking on Crown Street. “That’s one of our guys,” the woman said, and so Rinaldi waved. Then he went home.
When questioned by defense attorney Joe Lopez, Rinaldi said Moreno-Hernandez hadn’t looked at all drunk or unusual to him when he saw him walking by on Crown Street.
However, according to Hallstrom, the victim said Moreno-Hernandez looked intoxicated when she gave him a ride in her Toyota Corolla. Sometime between 1:30 and 4 a.m., he assaulted her near her car in East Rock Park, then left her for dead and took her car, Hallstrom said.
Kevin Hoff, a tall, elderly man with a cane, was the first person to offer her help after the assault. He recounted waking up that morning to the “frantic” ringing of his doorbell.
Hoff, who lives on Ridge Road across from the park, had fallen asleep in his downstairs living room watching TV when the doorbell rang.
He woke up, went to the door to and turned on the porch light. He found a young woman with a hoodie over her head, eyes swollen shut, and face covered in blood.
“She was screaming, ‘Help me, help me,’” Hoff said.
Neena Satija Photo
Hamden Police Officer Jeremy Brewer (pictured) was also working the midnight shift that night. After Hallstrom called him, he headed down Ridge Road toward Fair Haven. He didn’t find the Toyota, but he did find a New Haven police officer who happened to know Temple Grille owner David Candido. Together they went to Candido’s house, then to the restaurant to find Moreno-Hernandez’s phone number and address. It was around 6:15 a.m. that morning when officers arrived at his Huntington Street apartment.
Another busboy at Temple Grille opened the door after Brewer knocked several times and yelled “Police!” He let Brewer enter the apartment and a back bedroom, where Moreno-Hernandez was lying in bed. “Is anybody here named Angel?” Brewer asked, to which Moreno-Hernandez replied “sí.” When Brewer asked if he worked at Temple Grille and had been working there that night, Moreno-Hernandez also answered “sí.” Soon afterward he was arrested.
Moreno-Hernandez is from Mexico. Attorneys from both the defense and prosecution agreed that they would not discuss his immigration status at all during the trial.
The prosecution brought Hamden Police Officer Jason Venditto to the stand to describe how he found the crime scene.
Venditto said he and his canine, Titan, scoured the grass along Ridge Road. Titan soon picked up a human scent, leading them to a wooded area of the park.
Prosecutor Miranda showed a photo of what he found: A pair of navy blue woman’s underwear next to a tan bra and a puddle of blood. She also brought out a blood-stained T‑shirt and hoodie that the victim wore that night, causing jurors to grimace.
More graphic evidence is expected as the prosecution calls more witnesses when the trial resumes Tuesday morning.
Sorry I can not read this my eye well up with tears when I think of what happened to this women :(