Jury selection starts in New London murder conspiracy case
Dec. 8—Jury selection is underway in the trial of a former New London man who was in prison when police said he ordered three men to shoot and kill his son's mother and her boyfriend.
Shaquan Lee-Seales, 29, is already serving a 15-year prison sentence for killing Gilberto Olivencia, a 29-year-old father of two children, in New London during a drug dispute in 2015. He now faces the potential of decades more time in prison.
Lee-Seales was serving his sentence for a manslaughter conviction at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield when New London police said he ordered the killings in a series of recorded phone calls. Police said he was upset that his son's mother was telling his son he had two fathers and also wasn't taking him to visit Lee-Seales in prison enough.
At 11:29 p.m. on Nov. 24, 2019, police responded to a report of a gunshot at a residence on Third Avenue in New London to find a bullet had pierced a second-floor window and traveled through a bedroom where three young girls were sleeping. No injuries were reported.
Investigation by New London police led to the arrest of Lee-Seales along with a group of others involved in the shooting, including Sakye Reels-Felder of Mashantucket. Reel-Felder, 23, the alleged shooter, is serving an eight-year prison sentence after pleading guilty last year to attempted first-degree assault in connection with the murder plot.
Lee-Seales has maintained his innocence in the murder plot despite the fact police said they have incriminating recordings of phone calls he made from prison.
In 2018, court records show Lee-Seales was offered an 18-year prison sentence in exchange for a guilty plea. He rejected the offer and his case was placed on the trial list, which at the time was backlogged because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lee-Seales is represented by attorney Sebastian Desantis in a case being prosecuted by Supervisory Assistant State's Attorney Stephen M. Carney. The presiding judge in the case is Judge Shari Murphy. Lee-Seales is charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder, two counts of accessory to attempted murder, two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree assault, two counts of accessory to attempted first-degree assault, one count of risk of injury to a minor and inciting injury to a person.
Editor's note:This version corrects the name of the state's attorney who is prosecuting the case.
