BRIDGEPORT — A crowd cheered in the courtroom Friday as a judge refused to release an accused killer.
Michael Riley, the lawyer for Dondre Nesmith, who was charged Thursday night with the July 12 fatal shooting of Javier Flores, of Ansonia, argued that his client should be released because police had failed to secure an arrest warrant for Nesmith on the murder charge.
“The law requires police seek an arrest warrant but they didn’t do that,” Riley said.
A large group of Flores’ friends and family, the first large group allowed in a courtroom in the Golden Hill Street courthouse since the pandemic, sat forward in their chairs listening to the lawyer’s argument.
Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Tiffany Lockshier countered that police had received information to arrest Nesmith — he confessed to the crime, she said.
Superior Court Judge Kevin Doyle agreed police were authorized to arrest Nesmith as the crowd in the courtroom cheered, some getting to their feet to applaud.
The outburst drew a familiar warning for decorum from the judge but one not heard since the pandemic began.
The judge then ordered Nesmith held in lieu of $1 million bond and continued the case to Aug. 3.
Flores’ supporters declined comment as they left the courtroom.
According to police, shortly before 11:30 p.m. on July 12, officers responding to a call of shots fired on Gregory Street found a 2008 white Honda sedan riddled with bullet holes. A woman was seated in the front passenger seat cradling the 27-year-old Flores who was bleeding from a gunshot wound to the head, police said.
Flores was pronounced dead a short time later at Bridgeport Hospital.
Police said detectives subsequently reviewed footage from surveillance cameras and on the video saw a white Chevrolet approach the Honda followed by numerous muzzle flashes from the driver’s side of the Chevrolet. The Chevrolet then drove off as people rushed to Flores’ car, police said.
Police said detectives tracked the route of the Chevrolet on surveillance cameras to Dewey Street. Members of the State Police gang task force set up a surveillance of the car and shortly before 10 p.m. Thursday they spotted Nesmith getting into the car, police said. He was taken into custody.
Police said Lt. Chris LaMaine and Detective Robert Winkler read Nesmith his Miranda rights and during a recorded interview he admitted shooting and killing Flores.
Nesmith related that Flores and another man had previously robbed him and forced him to take his clothes off, police said. On the night of the homicide, Nesmith told detectives he had spotted Flores sitting in a car on Gregory Street.
“Nesmith stated that as no one was exiting the vehicle he just fired into the vehicle multiple times because he assumed the occupants would also have guns,” according to the police report.
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