March 10 – A man accused of shootings in Windsor and Hartford – among several other counts – has posted bail of more than $1.5 million and lost his public defender.
GUNCASES
ACCUSED: Chevon A. Grant, 25, of Hartford
CHARGE: Attempted first degree assault and other felonies on 1 June 2021, Faneuil Street shooting in Windsor; reckless first degree endangerment and weapons charges on April 18, 2022 shooting outside a party on Hartford Main Street
STATUS: Free on a $1.56 million bond
Hartford Superior Court Judge David P. Gold addressed the issue of public counsel representing Chevon A. Grant last fall after Grant posted bail of $1.56 million on six counts.
Grant, 25, of Hartford, raised the bonds through serfs. Under Connecticut’s pricing rules, the bonds would cost a total of $110,100.
The judge suggested that a defendant with the means to post such high bail should pay his own attorney rather than having taxpayers provide a public defender.
The judge asked Grant’s public defender, Johanna M. Canning, to investigate the matter. In December, Canning filed a motion to withdraw Grant’s cases, writing that Grant “is no longer entitled to a claim of need and therefore no longer entitled to court-appointed counsel.”
Gold granted the request on January 24. The files from Grant’s cases on Wednesday did not show that he had already hired a backup attorney.
In the first shooting, which dates back to an incident on June 1, 2021, a woman told police Grant took three Xanax pills that drove him “insane.” She said he was driving erratically in someone else’s car, prompting the owner to tell him to stop, according to a Windsor police officer’s affidavit.
The woman told police they stopped on Faneuil Street in Windsor and Grant threatened to come back and kill her – and not the vehicle’s owner. She said he returned with a gun but pointed it at her sister instead of her.
The story goes on
The sister told police Grant threatened to shoot her, held a gun to her chest and then put a bullet past her head. She estimated he fired 10 rounds but said no one was shot and there was no damage to her vehicle or home, the officer reported.
However, a neighbor told police he saw two men pointing guns at each other and heard one of the guns being fired. The witness said one of the men fell to the ground, said, “He shot me in the head,” then went into a house and didn’t come out.
Police found blood in the area and two caliber bullet casings. But they found no one in the home, and checks at nearby hospitals found no gunshot victims, the officer reported.
Police later found and searched the car Grant had left in. They found a box of ammunition, 194 street bags containing a substance that tested positive for fentanyl and a bag containing a substance that tested positive for crack cocaine, Windsor police detective Brian Connaughton reported.
The car owner told police Grant was shot in the foot in the Faneuil Street incident – and that the drugs and ammunition in the car belonged to Grant, the detective reported.
Grant is charged with attempted first-degree assault, harming a child and other felonies in the shooting incident, and possession of drugs and ammunition as a result of the search.
A man was seriously injured in the second shooting — on April 18, 2022, in the banquet room of the party house on North Main Street in Hartford. But Grant is not accused of causing the injury. He faces reckless endangerment and firearms charges due to his identification as one of the men shown on surveillance video who took part in a shootout outside the building.
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