Violent gang member faces mandatory life in prison after jury convicts him of three CT murders
A violent gangster from North Carolina who killed two hostages and a witness in an aborted New Haven gun deal was convicted of three murder charges by a jury in federal court in Bridgeport on Thursday.
Edward Michael Parks, a member of the Bloods street gang in Raleigh and known by the nickname Trouble, was found guilty of two charges of kidnapping resulting in death and one of killing a witness. He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
Federal prosecutors presented jurors with a grim account of what happened in the gun deal gone wrong at a bedroom of a house on Shelton Avenue in New Haven seven years ago. Parks, 33, had weapons displayed on a bed for a half dozen or so potential customers when two of the would-be buyers grabbed weapons and took off.
That happened on the evening of Nov. 16, 2015, but Parks wasn’t indicted until December 2019, when law enforcement tracked him to a prison in North Carolina, where he has a history of gun and drug arrests.
“I ain’t got nothin’ to lose,” Parks shouted at the officers who arrested him in North Carolina. “I’m gonna make you work for your money! ... I’m going to fight you! I’m not gonna stop! I ain’t got nothing to lose.”
Police began looking for Parks in Connecticut after finding bodies in and around New Haven in 2015.
On the morning of Nov. 17, 2015, an employee of the Broadmoor Apartments in Hamden notified police that he had discovered two dead men in a car in the complex parking lot. The car was still running and the radio was playing.
Police identified the victims as Damian “Chicken” Connor and Tamar Lawrence. Someone had stripped both men of identification, money and telephones. Both died from gunshots to the head.
Later in the day, witnesses reported that Devante “Breezy” Williams had been shot and killed at 49 Sherman Court in New Haven. They reported gunshots and said they saw one man chasing another. Williams had been shot in the head and torso and Connor’s cell phone was found nearby.
The two locations where the three victims’ bodies were found are 15 minutes apart by car.
Prosecutors said that Parks was in New Haven to sell guns and there were “several” potential buyers in the bedroom on Shelton Avenue.
When two potential buyers — neither of whom is identified — grabbed guns and ran, prosecutors said they learned from witnesses that Park was enraged and ordered Connor and Lawrence to call the thieves and order them to return the guns or pay for them. The prosecution said Connor and Lawrence, friendly with one of the thieves, were held hostage by Parks, while others present at the gun sale were ordered to make multiple phone calls to the friend in a futile attempt to persuade him to return.
Parks and others who had been in the bedroom for the gun sale — including Williams — stripped Connor and Lawrence of their cash, cellphones, the key to their Nissan Maxima automobile and drugs that they were carrying.
Parks got into the Nissan with Connor, Lawrence and another witness from the gun sale and they headed toward Hamden. Other participants in the gun sale followed in a Volkswagen. At one point a passenger in the Volkswagen telephoned Parks, who said he was going to “take care of them,” according to prosecutors.
But first the Nissan stopped to allow Connor to run into a house to get some money.
When Connor returned to the car, it drove to a parking lot behind the Broadmoor apartments. As the Volkswagen arrived minutes later, its passengers reported hearing gunshots and muzzle flashes, according to the prosecution memo.
Parks jumped into Volkswagen and instructed the driver to “drive normal” and head back toward New Haven. Parks is accused of telling Williams and another unidentified witness from the gun sale that he wanted to “go smoke marijuana.”
At Sherman Court in New Haven, Parks is accused of getting out of the car with Williams and shooting him. Parks later told an associate that he wanted to keep Williams from implicating him.
