On June 25, 2018, William Smalls, a 42-year-old Black/African American man, was found inside a car that had struck a tree in Hartford, Connecticut, and was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy determined he had sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the head, neck, chest, and arm; the crash was not the cause of death. The death was ruled the city’s 13th homicide of 2018 and investigated by the Hartford Police Department.

Within weeks investigators arrested 42-year-old Damond Bester of Bloomfield in July 2018. He was charged with murder and criminal possession of a firearm. Prosecutors later presented gunshot residue on Bester’s clothing, cell phone tower records placing him near the scene, and witness statements during the trial.

In December 2022 a jury found Damond Bester guilty of murder and criminal possession of a firearm in connection with Smalls’s death. Smalls is remembered by family and friends as a loving, sociable father who left behind two daughters. Does anyone have memories of William or information about the case to share?