Shooting suspect posts $1.5 million bond, loses lawyer
Mar. 10—A man who is charged in shooting incidents in Windsor and Hartford — as well as several other criminal cases — has posted more than $1.5 million bond and lost his public defender.
SHOOTING CASES
DEFENDANT: Chevon A. Grant, 25, of Hartford
CHARGES: Attempted first-degree assault and other crimes in June 1, 2021, shooting incident on Faneuil Street in Windsor; first-degree reckless endangerment and gun charges in April 18, 2022, shootout outside party on Hartford's Main Street
STATUS: Free on $1.56 million bond
Hartford Superior Court Judge David P. Gold raised the issue of Chevon A. Grant's representation by the public defender last fall after Grant posted $1.56 million bond in six cases.
Grant, 25, of Hartford posted the bonds through bondsmen. Under Connecticut's pricing regulations, the bonds would cost a total of $110,100.
The judge suggested that a defendant with the means to post such high bond should pay for his own lawyer, rather than have taxpayers provide a public defender.
The judge asked Grant's public defender, Johanna M. Canning, to investigate the issue. In December, Canning filed a motion to withdraw from Grant's cases, writing that Grant "can no longer claim indigency and is therefore no longer entitled to have court-appointed counsel."
Gold granted the motion Jan. 24. The files of Grant's cases Wednesday didn't show that he had yet hired a replacement lawyer.
In the first shooting case, stemming from an incident on June 1, 2021, a woman told police that Grant had taken three Xanax pills, which she said make him "crazy." She said he had been driving someone else's car erratically, causing the owner to tell him to stop, according to a Windsor police officer's affidavit.
The woman told police that they stopped on Faneuil Street in Windsor, and Grant threatened to come back and kill her — rather than the owner of the vehicle. She said he did return with a gun but pointed it at her sister instead of her.
The sister told police that Grant threatened to shoot her, poked a gun against her chest, then fired a bullet past her head. She estimated that he fired 10 rounds but said no one was shot and her vehicle and house weren't damaged, the officer reported.
A neighbor told police, however, that he saw two men pointing guns at each other and heard one of the guns go off. The witness said one of the men dropped to the ground, said "He shot me in my head," then went into a house and didn't come out again.
Police found blood in the area and shell casings of two calibers. But they found no one in the house, and checks with nearby hospitals revealed no gunshot victims, the officer reported.
Police later located and searched the car Grant had left in. They found a box of ammunition, 194 street bags of 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 that 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, risk of injury to a child, and other crimes in the shooting incident and drug and ammunition possession as a result of the search.
In the second shooting incident — at the Party House banquet hall on northern Main Street in Hartford on April 18, 2022 — a man was critically injured. But Grant isn't accused of causing the injury. He is facing reckless endangerment and gun charges as a result of his identification as one of the men shown on surveillance video involved in an exchange of gunfire outside the building.
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