On June 7, 2004, 22-year-old Jason Craggett was sitting on the front porch of his grandmother’s home on Vernon Street in New Haven when a gunman approached. Craggett tried to flee inside the house but was pursued and shot once in the chest. He was taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery and later died of his injuries. Witnesses did not get a clear look at the shooter, who was believed to have fled on foot, and police initially had no immediate motive or suspect.

Investigators later focused on 21-year-old Christopher Brown, alleging Brown shot Craggett during a robbery attempt. Brown was arrested and charged with murder; another man, Stacey Grier, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Ballistic testing linked the same gun to Craggett’s slaying and to a separate incident in which Brown allegedly shot and wounded his own brother ten days after the homicide. Brown’s first trial ended in a mistrial in November 2005 when the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. He subsequently pleaded guilty under the Alford doctrine and received a 30-year prison term, a resolution that the family described as sparing them another trial.

Did anyone in New Haven around Vernon Street that evening see or hear anything that could still help clarify what happened?