The Murder of Eugenio DeLeon Vega (Connecticut)

The murder of Eugenio DeLeon Vega marked the beginning of a three-decade legal odyssey that exposed flaws in Connecticut’s criminal justice system and raised enduring questions about who really killed the popular grocer.

Police initially suspected robbery as the motive and two suspects were arrested, charged, and convicted based on the state’s highly circumstantial case against them despite the glaring inconsistencies at the scene and witnesses who couldn’t stick to their story. This case still has not seen a true ending and it continues to develop as we speak.

The Crime

It was 6:05 on the morning of July 4, 1993 when New Haven police responded to a call at La Casa Green, a small grocery store on Grand Avenue in the city’s Fair Haven neighborhood. According to court records, one of the store’s regular customers, Mary Boyd, walked in a little after 5:40 a.m. expecting to see the store owner, 51-year old Eugenio DeLeon Vega, but he wasn’t at his usual post. Mary looked for Eugenio inside and out, but there was no sign of him.

Eugenio wasn’t just the owner of a neighborhood store, he and La Casa Green were at the center of the Fair Haven community. You could stop in to grab a soda or ingredients for dinner and find yourself in conversation with friends long after you’d checked out. Eugenio had been a fixture of Grand Avenue for over 25 years, and he was as reliable as the sunrise…Which is also when he showed up to the store every day. It was routine for Eugenio to arrive around 5 a.m. and stay until near midnight, so the fact that Eugenio wasn’t at the register or puttering around the shop that morning was extremely unusual.

At 5:42 a.m. Mary used the phone behind the counter to place a 911 call to New Haven police with a report of suspicious activity at 330 Grand Avenue. Two New Haven officers arrived at 6:05 a.m.

Everything at the front of the store looked pretty much as it should. La Casa Green was described by some as slightly cluttered, but other than that, nothing seemed like it had been scattered or disturbed. But the back of the shop told a different story. The officers found the store’s large floor safe sitting open and a wallet lying in plain view, and if there was ever any cash inside, it was gone now. Officer Keith Wortz turned to the walk-in freezer and opened the door. Eugenio’s lifeless body was slumped in a semi-seated position and his hands were bound in front of him, wrapped with an extension cord. There was a single gunshot wound to his left temple and an exit wound on the right side of his head.

Already, the theory of what happened inside Eugenio’s shop was assembling inside the minds of police. It looked as if Eugenio’s death started as a robbery and turned into a brazen homicide. But as investigators worked through the holiday weekend in pursuit of answers, Eugenio’s murder became not only a homicide inquiry but the beginning of one of Connecticut’s longest and most controversial wrongful-conviction sagas the state has ever seen.

About Eugenio

Eugenio DeLeon Vega was born in Puerto Rico and he came to the continental United States to raise a family and start his grocery business. Neighbors described him as a generous, soft-spoken man who often extended credit to struggling customers and donated food to local families. To say Eugenio was beloved by his community feels like an understatement. Josh Kovner reports for the New Haven Register that Eugenio’s wake lasted four days. That’s how many people wished to pay their respects and say a final goodbye.

Fair Haven was already on edge that Independence Day weekend. Pam McLoughlin reports for the New Haven Register that in addition to Eugenio’s slaying, the city recorded at least two other unrelated violent incidents that left police scrambling. But the murder of the mild-mannered grocer cut deepest. Residents saw it not only as a tragedy, but as a grim reflection of how their neighborhood had changed in recent years since drug culture and other crime began eroding the sense of safety along Grand Avenue. Eugenio had provided a sort of antidote to that turmoil. His shop was a safe haven in the neighborhood; Eugenio himself was a helping hand to those who needed one.

Eugenio’s community stood in wait outside La Casa Green as investigators worked inside the store. Allan Drury, Michael Foley and John Mongillo Jr. report for the New Haven Register that hundreds of people waited on the street for hours together in mourning until police asked the crowd to clear out.

Investigation

Investigators concluded the fatal round likely came from a .380-caliber firearm, though they had not recovered the actual murder weapon. Dave Altimari reports for the Hartford Courant that the fatal bullet was found lodged in a block of cheese inside the cooler.

According to Freda Moon’s reporting for the New Haven Advocate, the coroner’s report noted only a few injuries besides the gun shot wound. Eugenio had a “barely recognizable contusion” on his forehead and as well as a faint contusion and slight impression on his wrists where the cord was tightly bound.

The store showed no signs of forced entry. Records from the security company showed that the security system at Eugenio’s store had been deactivated at 5:08 a.m. So, whatever happened inside that store occurred between 5:08 and the 911 call at 5:42 a.m. That’s a 34 minute window to confront, overpower, bind Eugenio’s hands, kill him and then apparently ransack his wallet and the safe, in unknown order.

Eugenio’s family claimed there was anywhere from a few thousand up to $30,000 in cash and food stamps taken from the safe. But whoever killed Eugenio apparently left significant amounts of money behind. There was money in the cash register, at least $1800 in Eugenio’s pocket, and some sources state he was still wearing a gold necklace and a gold watch was still on his wrist beneath the restraints. So if this was a robbery-turned-murder, it wasn’t a very complete robbery.

In the days following the murder, detectives canvassed Grand Avenue and nearby side streets, interviewing store owners, neighbors, early-morning pedestrians, as well as Eugenio’s family members.

Eugenio’s son, 28-year old Carlos DeLeon said he showed up at the store on the morning of the murder to find police cars everywhere. He was tormented by the thought that if he’d gotten there earlier, he might have encountered his father’s killer himself, or maybe none of this ever would have happened. According to Tim Stelloh and Freda Moon’s 2015 4-part series covering this case for BuzzFeed, Carlos also told police that his father was known to keep valuables in the safe. The jewelry he expected to see inside wasn’t there.

Several weeks passed without any answers, but by the end of July, there was a major break in the case. Police arrested a woman named Doreen Stiles on charges relating to sex work. And because Doreen often worked in the Fair Haven neighborhood, police decided to question her about Eugenio’s murder: Did she see anything that day? Did she know anything about who might have killed him?

After several hours in the interrogation room, Doreen finally spilled her story. She said that on the morning of July 3, 1993, she was in an alley near La Casa Green when she overheard an argument and yelling, and then a gunshot. She saw two men coming out of La Casa Green shortly after. Police presented Doreen with a photo array – two photos at a time. After a few sets, Doreen stopped them, pointing to two faces. Those were the guys, she said. Their names were Ronald Taylor and George Gould.

It wasn’t the first time in the investigation that detectives had heard those names. According to the series, “A Murder at La Casa Green” by Freda Moon and Tim Stelloh, residents in the area were suspicious of Ronald and George. They seemed to have recently come into a lot of money with no real explanation for the sudden influx of cash. But now, with Doreen’s identification, investigators wondered if Ronald and George’s high-roller behavior was fueled by blood money.

An interview with Mary Boyd, the customer who called 911, only deepened suspicion. Mary claimed she saw, “movement of people of color in the store” as she looked through the store windows from across the street. George and Ronald are Black. Mary said that one man was tall and the other was shorter. That description also matched George and Ronald.

George Gould had a criminal history including more than one robbery conviction, and he’d just been released from jail a few days before the murder. After his release, he stayed with a friend across the street from Eugenio’s store. But Ronald Taylor did not have a criminal record at the time. And George and Ronald didn’t know each other very well; they only met a few days earlier.

So, investigators tracked down Ronald and George for interviews. George said that on the night before the murder, he and Ronald had bounced around a few places together. They started at someone’s apartment and left around 11:30 p.m. to try to get some money to buy drugs, which they did. They also spent time at another location about a half mile away from La Casa Green until 3 a.m. on the 4th. After that, they went to another friend’s house until about 6:15 a.m. Ronald’s story of his whereabouts that night was similar, with a slight variation of the timeline. Police believed the murder occurred at or around 5:30 a.m. which means if they were telling the truth, George and Ronald couldn’t have done it. They denied ever going to La Casa Green to rob and murder the owner.

But their alibis were not great. Ronald and George admitted to committing quote-unquote strong-arm street robberies that night to get money for cocaine. And witnesses placed them at the scene. For investigators, that was enough to support charges.

On August 11, 1993, a little over a month after New Haven lost a beloved member of their community, police arrested Ronald Taylor and George Gould on charges of felony murder, robbery, attempted robbery and conspiracy. They each entered not guilty pleas. If convicted, they each faced a maximum sentence of 120 years in prison.

Trial & Convictions

The trial of George Gould and Ronald Taylor opened in 1995 in New Haven Superior Court to intense local interest. For many residents of Fair Haven, the proceedings represented long-awaited justice for Eugenio. But for others, especially defense attorneys who had studied the file, the state’s evidence raised troubling questions from the outset.

The prosecution’s case was almost entirely circumstantial. They presented the defendants as desperate drug users who targeted one of the only stores open at that time of the morning to continue their overnight partying when they ran out of money.

There was no physical or forensic evidence connecting either man to the crime. The presumed murder weapon was never recovered. At the center of the prosecution’s case was the testimony of Doreen Stiles, the only person who positively identified the defendants near La Casa Green on the morning of the killing.

Doreen was too sick to appear in court for the trial. Reporting by Lynne Touhy indicates Doreen was battling an infection of her heart valves. Instead, she recorded her statement from her hospital room and the tape was played for the jury during the proceedings. The judge, Ronald and George and all the lawyers were present when the video statement was recorded. Doreen explained how she heard arguing  in English and Spanish as she stood outside La Casa Green before a gunshot rang out, and how she watched as the defendants ran out of the store.

The prosecution acknowledged the weight of Doreen’s account. In closing statements, prosecutor James Clark told the jury, “The case rises and falls with Doreen Stiles. If you believe her, you’ll convict. If you think she’s lying, you’ll acquit.”

Defense attorneys argued that the prosecution’s case rested entirely on a woman’s compromised memory – she admitted to her substance use at the time – and that police had overlooked other possible suspects. Defense attorney Chris DeMarco told the jury, “If Doreen Stiles is all the state needs to convict someone of murder, then God help us all.”

Despite those concerns, the prosecution’s narrative that two desperate men robbed and killed a generous neighborhood grocer proved persuasive. In February of 1995, after hours of deliberation, the jury found Ronald Taylor and George Gould guilty of felony murder, first-degree robbery and attempted robbery. Each received an 80-year prison sentence. The men were in their 30s at the time of the convictions. They’d be eligible for parole sometime after their 80th birthdays.

Ronald and George have always maintained their innocence. Ronald told the New Haven Register, “Someone said I killed someone. That’s not my style. I was involved in one little robbery in a hallway (the night before) and that wasn’t even a robbery; he gave me the money.”

Ronald commented, “In all my history, in all my time, I never put anyone in the hospital. There was never a time when the person couldn’t walk tomorrow…If I carried a gun, it was only for show.”

By the end of 1995 as George and Ronald began serving their sentences, the case was closed as far as the state was concerned. In reality, it was only just beginning.

Eugenio’s story continues on Dark Downeast. Press play to hear the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.