An Ansonia man identified by police as the father of two leaders of a local drug dealing crew could be sent to prison for 30 years if convicted of weapons charges stemming from two investigations into his sons’ organization.
Charles Spencer, 54, faces six counts of possession of an electronic defense weapon by a convicted felon in connection with stun guns police say were found inside his Howard Avenue home during searches in 2010 and 2012.
The crime is a class D felony. Each count carries a sentence of up to five years behind bars.
Spencer also faces a single count of possession of drug paraphernalia related to an aerosol can with a false bottom allegedly found during the 2010 search.
He is free on bonds totaling $15,000 while the cases are pending.
A trial on the charges began Tuesday (June 4) at Superior Court in Milford before Judge Denise Markle and a six-member jury with two alternates.
Two Investigations, Two Searches
The charges against Spencer date back to police searches of his Howard Avenue home in April 2010 and June 2012.
Both searches took place after judges signed warrants connecting the address to a drug dealing organization allegedly headed by Keyshon Zimmerman, who is identified in one of the warrants as Spencer’s son.
The warrant also identifies Roosevelt Scott, an alleged lieutenant in the organization, as Spencer’s son. Scott was sentenced to four years in prison on a variety of charges in 2012.
Zimmerman was sentenced to serve four years behind bars on weapons and drug charges in 2011 and is currently at a Waterbury halfway house, according to Correction Department records.
Those charges related to a probe by Shelton and Derby police into the gang allegedly using the proceeds from crack cocaine sales to buy guns.
According to court records, during that investigation, police set up an undercover purchase of a gun from Zimmerman and another man, during which the two men fled.
A police dog tracked Zimmerman to his father’s Howard Avenue residence, but Zimmerman wasn’t found by police.
They then obtained a search warrant for Spencer’s home, and while they didn’t find Zimmerman, they did find two stun guns, and arrested Spencer because he had felony drug convictions on his record and was thus barred from legally possessing stun guns.
According to a police report in the case, Spencer said he would often walk his dogs and had the stun guns for protection against aggressive animals.
While those charges were pending, Spencer’s address again came up in a police probe into the Zimmerman organization.
That investigation probe came to a head in May 2012, after another alleged leader of the group, Javon Zimmerman, was shot to death outside R.J. Cafe in Derby.
The man eventually accused of Javon Zimmerman’s murder was during the same time period helping Ansonia police to build a case against the Zimmerman gang.
A few weeks after Javon Zimmerman’s murder, Ansonia police coordinated simultaneous raids on 11 homes in five towns after obtaining search and seizure warrants for the addresses.
Those raids yielded nine arrests on a variety of drug and weapons charges — including a fresh round of charges against Spencer, again, for allegedly possessing stun guns.
The Trial
Assistant State’s Attorney John Kerwin called two witnesses on the first day of Spencer’s trial, Shelton Police Detective Ben Trabka and Craig Appleby, a Hamden police officer.
On Wednesday, Kerwin elicited testimony from Shelton Police Detective Sgt. Kevin Ahern and Ansonia Police officers Jonathan Troesser and Detective Sgt. Patrick Lynch.
Lynch demonstrated the stun guns in the courtroom Wednesday, prompting multiple jurors to flinch when he activated one of the several hand-held stun guns Spencer is accused of possessing.
“This one is not as loud,” he said while demonstrating a Zap Stun Cane (similar to this one) allegedly seized from Spencer’s home during a June 2012 raid.
After Lynch left the stand about 1 p.m. Wednesday Markle told jurors she expects Kerwin to rest his case Thursday, after which Spencer’s lawyer, Joseph Merly, would present his defense.
Markle said the jury could be deliberating the case by some point tomorrow.
