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Crime & Safety

Defendant Takes the Stand

Dashawn Revels testifies that he didn't shoot Bryan Davila and names the people he thinks might have

Dashawn Revels, who is on trial for the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Bryan Davila on March 31, 2009, took the stand today in and testified that he did not shoot Davila. However, he went on to say that he did witness the shooting and he was prepared to name names. 

Revels testified that on the night of the shooting, he had gone with friends to the housing projects on Crystal Avenue in New London. Revels said he was talking on the phone to his girlfriend and walking a little behind the group as they were leaving, when a man called out from the other side of the street. The man, who would turn out to be Bryan Davila, started arguing with two of his friends, Leroy Thomas and Raashid Cox.

“The guy pulls out a gun and shot,” said Revels. Cox fell to the ground, Revels said, then he got up and started shooting. Revels said he then saw Thomas run toward the man and he began shooting too. Revels didn't stick around to see what happened next. “I started to run toward the footbridge," he said. "I was running away from the bullets.”

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When Revels’ defense attorney Bruce Sturman asked him who shot Bryan Davila, Revels replied, “Leroy Thomas and Raashid Cox.”

Asked why he didn’t tell police that information when he was arrested, Revels said he was afraid. “If I had told, I feared my family would be in danger,” said Revels. Instead, Revels admitted, he lied during the first interview with police, telling detectives that he had not been to Crystal Avenue that night.  

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When New London Police Detective Richard told him he was being charged with murder, Revels said, “My face just dropped.”  

After being shown photos of himself and his friends entering the apartments on Crystal Avenue that night, Revels testified that, he offered to point out the shooters during his second interview with detectives in the early morning hours of April 1, 2009.

“The second time I went into the room I wanted to show them who did it. I didn’t feel comfortable saying names on tape,” said Revels. But, he added, “I thought this guy [Det. Curcuro] is never going to believe me, because I’d already lied about being on Crystal Avenue.”

Revels admitted he lied during the second interview too, when he told police he had tossed the gun used in the shooting into a park as he fled. Although police searched the area Revels described, the murder weapon was never found.

Looking at video surveillance footage taken by cameras at the Crystal Avenue apartment complex in court today, Revels identified everyone who was with him that night. In response to a question from Sturman, he noted that four of them were wearing red ball caps. After looking at additional photos of Cox and Thomas, he also remarked that at least one of them had braided hair.

That's significant for the defense, because Revels had been picked up as a suspect after the shooting based on an eyewitness description of the shooter as an African American male with braids under a red ball cap. Revels was singled out because the witness also said the person she saw was wearing a camouflage jacket, and he was the only one among the group who was wearing such a jacket.

Revels appeared in court today dressed in grey pants, a light green shirt, and matching tie, and came across much as Curcuro had described him, as polite, respectful, and cooperative. At one point, Revels even hesitated to say what one of his friends said to Davila that night because he said he didn’t want to curse in court.

Revels testified that he willingly volunteered to let police test his hands for gunshot residue because, he said, “I didn’t fire a gun.” State Crime Lab forensic scientist Dr. Fung Kwok testified yesterday that, though he had found one particle of lead on Revels’ sweatshirt, he found no gunshot residue on samples taken from Revels’ hands a few hours after the shooting.

Revels told the court that he was counting on the residue test to prove he hadn’t touched a gun that night. “I was confident of the results,” said Revels. “I didn’t shoot no gun.”

The defense plans to call at least one more witness before resting its case. However, because the witness isn’t available to testify this week, the trial won’t resume until Monday, July 25.

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