Defense Rests in the Murder Trial of Dashawn Revels

Defense attorneys for Dashawn Revels, who is on trial for the 2009 murder of Bryan Davila, rested their case today. The final witness was New London Police Detective Richard Curcuro, who was recalled to testify, this time as a defense witness.

Revels’ defense attorney Bruce Sturman asked Curcuro whether he interviewed any of the other eight people seen with Revels at the apartment complex on Crystal Avenue the night that Davila was shot. Curcuro told the court that he interviewed all of them, including Leroy Thomas and Raashid Cox, two men that Revels alleged did the shooting when he testified last week.

Curcuro said that, at first, Cox and Thomas both denied being at the Crystal Avenue housing projects on the night of the shooting. They changed their stories, Curcuro said, when he confronted them with photographs taken from video surveillance footage that placed them at the scene on March 31, 2009, shortly before Davila was shot.

Curcuro said he initially interviewed Cox on April 15, 2009, because he’d been identified as one of the people in the area that night. “He stated he heard gunshots,” Curcuro said. However, the detective said Cox told him he was crossing a footbridge leading away from the intersection of Crystal Avenue and State Pier Road, which is where Davila was found, when he heard the shooting.  

The detective was not able to interview Thomas until February 19, 2011, he said, because Thomas left the state and moved to Virginia shortly after the shooting occurred. Curcuro told the court he asked Thomas why he left Connecticut. He said Thomas told him his trip to Virginia had been prearranged and that he’d gone there to train as a boxer. Curcuro said Thomas provided him with the names of two people with whom he said he’d been training but the detective said he didn’t contact either person.  

When Curcuro asked Thomas what he remembered from that night, “He said, ‘I don’t know what happened,’” Curcuro said. “He seemed standoffish.”  

On cross-examination, Senior State’s Attorney David Smith asked Curcuro whether, during the course of his investigation, he had been able to determine if anyone other than the defendant had been involved in the shooting. “No,” Curcuro said.

At that point, Judge Stuart Schimelman interjected to tell the jurors that though the defense was making a case for “third party culpability,” by suggesting someone other than Revels shot Davila, they were not charged with getting to the “truth of the matter.” Their job, he said, was to weigh the evidence presented and determine whether Revels was guilty or innocent.

Defense attorney Sturman had requested that the jurors be allowed to visit the apartment from which an eyewitness claimed to have seen Revels shoot Davila at a distance of some 265 feet away from her window. Judge Schimelman denied the request, saying the view would be different this time of year and that he believed the photos taken at the scene and testimony about the distance, the lighting, and the visibility on the night in question would suffice.

Schimelman also denied Sturman’s motion for dismissal. Although such motions are standard procedure at the end of a trial, outside of the presence of the jury Sturman added that he thought the prosecution’s case was “very weak.”

Both the prosecution and the defense will have an opportunity to make their final arguments to the jury on July 28. The trial is on hold until then because of scheduling conflicts.