New Haven man charged with manslaughter nine months after girlfriend’s fatal shooting with replica Colt revolver, police say

A New Haven man has been arrested and charged with manslaughter nine months after his girlfriend was shot in the head inside their master bathroom in what he claimed to be an accidental discharge of a replica, gunpowder-loaded pistol last fall.

Anthony Valeriano, 52, was taken into custody last week and charged with first-degree manslaughter for the “reckless act” that led to the gunshot that killed his girlfriend, 44-year-old Natosha Gaines, police and city officials announced.

Gaines’ family remembered her as full of life and joy and lauded police for the months-long effort to build a case against Valeriano at a news conference hosted by Mayor Justin Elicker and Interim Police Chief Renee Dominguez midday Tuesday.

“I’m just grateful that he’s caught and he’s doing time for the crime he committed,” Gaines’ mother Cheryl Tyson said, holding Gaines’ granddaughter in her arms. “He took something very precious away from all of us. She’s not even allowed to see this grandbaby grow up.”

Gaines died a few minutes before midnight on Oct. 17, 2020, when Valeriano entered the bathroom holding the loaded Navy Colt .44-caliber replica while preparing to clean it and evidently stumbled, according to an arrest warrant affidavit detailing the investigation.

Valeriano claimed the gun “just fired” and hit Gaines directly in the head, according to his account of the incident.

Valeriano ordered his 15-year-old son to call 911 while he performed CPR and explained the situation to a police dispatcher.

“Oh my god ... I need a 911 please, I need an ambulance, my girlfriend, my girl, got shot in the head,” he told the dispatcher, according to the affidavit.

“I don’t know. It’s a relic pistol,” he said when the dispatcher asked what happened. “She was in the bathroom and I walked in ... and the trigger slipped and it hit her. It hit her right in the head.”

Gaines was pronounced dead at the scene just before midnight.

Valeriano and his two teen children were taken to the New Haven police headquarters where Valeriano explained to detectives he had been struggling to clean the loaded revolver in the bedroom and had walked to the bathroom to retrieve more tissues, he told detectives. He was walking with the hammer pulled back as he fumbled with a percussive cap in the revolver when it went off, he continued.

Valeriano’s 15- and 13-year-old sons told police they were playing video games elsewhere in the house and did not hear the gunshot but did rush to the blood-covered bathroom when they heard their father screaming, according to detectives’ notes of their accounts. They told police that Valeriano and Gaines argued before but had not that night.

Investigators at the scene found tissues and other materials consistent with Valeriano’s account that he was cleaning the weapon when it was fired.

They later discovered Valeriano had called his father just before the shooting, but he had not picked up and Valeriano evidently did not properly end the call, leaving a four-minute voicemail, according to the affidavit. The voicemail does not capture the sound of a gunshot but it does include portions of Valeriano and his son’s frantic 911 call.

Chief Medical Examiner James Gill concluded after an autopsy that the “firearm was in contact, or within very close proximity” of Gaines’ head when it went off, according to the affidavit.

Valeriano’s account of the incident never changed during repeated interviews with police in the intervening months, court records show, and detectives ultimately chose to charge him with manslaughter — as opposed to murder, which is intentional — because of his “reckless act” leading to Gaines’ death, Dominguez said.

“Oftentimes justice takes longer than any of us would like, but today is about bringing some sense of justice to your family,” Elicker told Tyson and Gaines’ father Arnold Payne on Tuesday. “It can never bring Natosha back and as a father I can’t even imagine what you’ve experienced over these past many months. But I hope you know the city and the police department are with you, not just up until today but for many months and years moving forward to continue to support your family.”

Both Tyson and Payne heaped praise on detectives and former New Haven Chief Otoniel Reyes, who retired this spring, for their work on the case and for bringing charges.

“She was full of life, full of joy,” Tyson said. “An amazing grandmother, an amazing mom. She was just a happy-go-lucky person. Every picture I see she’s got this hearty laugh that’s infectious, so that’s what I really miss about her.”

Valeriano was arraigned last week and remains in custody in lieu of $1 million bond. He is scheduled to return to court Aug. 3.

Zach Murdock can be reached at zmurdock@courant.com.