Andre Marshall murder
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[edit] A Fairfield County killing
The Andre Marshall Case remains one of the most shocking unsolved New England murders of the past several years. In the early morning hours of September 18, 2005, a motorist passing the intersection of Bridgeport, Connecticut's East Avenue and Poplar Streets spotted a strange object suspended from the intersections power and traffic pole. Police arrived on scene to find the battered body of a Bridgeport teen hung from the neck with barbed wire. Identified as 17 year old Andre Marshall, the medical examiner determined Marshall had been beaten badly before being suspended from the power pole sometime around 3:00 AM. Connecticut State Police and the FBI's Organized Crime Unit from the Hartford Field Office opened the investigation, Special Agent in Charge Micheal Donner stating "A crime of this magnitude warrants a maximum investigative effort and cooperation. I urge anyone with any information to come forward as soon as possible." Donner's request was met by a resident of East Avenue who on the night of the 18th had witnessed "two white kids in hoodies running through the backyard." Police turned the investogaton towards Marshall's alleged gang connections, linking him with the city's Trey Eight Spliff's, a gang known to be involved in drug distribution. From interviews with Marshall's associates the FBI gathered that at the time of his murder Marshall had been dealing with an East End gang known in the area as the East 84's, a group believed by State Police to control much of the flow of drugs from Bridgeport into the surrounding towns of North Fairfield county. It was believed that Marshall had been beaten and killed over an exchnage gone wrong, and began rounding up suspected members of the East 84's for interrogation.
[edit] The Weston connection
On October 4, 2006, the police investigation led them to two youths in the small North Fairfield town of Weston, Connecticut, a semi-rural community of 10,000 several miles South of Bridegport. The two Weston High School students, both 17, were rigorously questioned by State Police and FBI and released the same day. The two were believed to be members of the East 84's, which was being subjected to increased scrutiny as the case continued. The FBI's VICAP folder included dossiers on at least six members of the gang, whose claim to fame was being on of the largest all-white Irish street gangs in the Fairfield County area, excluding the ever-present Italian mob presence in Bridgeport and nearby Danbury. The next day Federal prosecutor David Shea convened a grand jury to weight evidence against the two teens, whose named were withheld "for reasons of Public interest". Attorney John Shannon, hired to represent one of the teens responded with a motion to dismiss the charges before the boys were even formally arraigned. A Federal Judge dismissed the charges in lieu of lack of evidence, with the FBI producing only the words and rumors of convicted gangsters to back up the investigation. Judge Peter Andreyevitch was quoted in the Connecticut Post as saying "The burden of proof only increases in proportion with the magnitude of the crime, not the other way around."
[edit] The investigation stalls
With the dismissal of charges against the two East 84 gang members from Weston, the investogation becamed bogged down in conflicting testimony from members of the local criminal underworld. Marshall's associates in the Trey Eight Spliffs were increasingly looked at as having had involvement in the killing of Marshall. Special Agent In Charge Donner was replaced with another agent from the Hartford Field Office, and the State Police turned the investigation over to local law enforcement. The Marshall family attempted on several ocasions to have the case re-examined, and while it remains open to this day the murder is one of New Englands most puzzling crimes.
[edit] References
Gale, Francis. Horrific Murder Shocks Bridgeport The Connecticut Register, September 19, 2005, Volume IX, Issue XLII
News12 CT Re-Broadcast, November 18, 2006.
Regis, Allan, ed. Encyclopedia of 21st Century Crime New York; HarperCollins Publishers, 2006.
Swift, Archie and Volstok, Ivan. "The New Dockets: 50 Cases The People Never Tried." Amherst, MA, UMASS Press, 2006.
