
Desmond Hamilton
MILFORD — An Ansonia man accused of two robberies will be sentenced to at least eight years behind bars if he takes a plea offer next month.
The man, 18-year-old Desmond Hamilton, is accused of robbing a food delivery driver on Dwight Street Dec. 21, 2016.
Police also obtained an arrest warrant charging him with pulling a gun on a woman during an attempted carjacking on Howard Avenue Oct. 3, 2017.
Hamilton appeared at Superior Court in Milford Wednesday before Judge Frank Iannotti.
Prosecutor Cornelius Kelly said an offer in the case calls for a 20-year prison sentence to be suspended after 8 to 12 years in exchange for Hamilton pleading guilty to two counts of first-degree robbery and a single count of first-degree assault.
Hamilton’s lawyer, Eroll Skyers, asked Judge Iannotti to continue the case to next month so Hamilton could decide whether to accept or reject it.
Hamilton is scheduled to return to court Sept. 18.
Delivery Driver Robbery
The first robbery occurred Dec. 21, 2016 about 8:53 p.m. on Dwight Street.
According to an arrest warrant written by Detective Brian Harte, a food delivery driver told police he was taking an order to an address on Dwight Street when a man approached him saying he had placed the order.
When the driver got out of his car to complete the transaction, he noticed the man was holding a gun.
Two other men then held jumped him and hit him in the face before getting into his car and driving away. The man’s injuries included nasal fractures and hemorrhaging.
Police got a court order for the account information from the phone number the order was placed from.
When they received the records, they found that the person using the phone had called a number used by Hamilton about an hour before the robbery.
Police found the phone used in the robbery belonged to Antoine Snell, a 19-year-old Bridgeport resident.
Police there said Antoine and his twin brother, Treyquane, were “heavily involved in stolen car activity” and were also members of a “recognized subset of the Bloods gang.”
Bridgeport police also told Ansonia cops they had chased the car taken from the delivery driver the week after the robbery.
The car was eventually found in Bridgeport Jan. 3, 2017. DNA testing linked Hamilton to the vehicle, the warrant says.
Antoine and Treyquane Snell have also been charged in the case and are due in court Sept. 5 and Sept. 13, respectively.
Attempted Carjacking
Hamilton is also accused of robbing a woman of her car keys at gunpoint.
According to an arrest warrant written by Detective Kristen Hunt, cops were called to Howard Avenue about 8:36 p.m. Oct. 3, 2017 in that case.
The victim said she had just gotten home from the store when a man approached her, pointed a gun at her, and told her to give him her keys.
She complied, and began running away. But the suspect “chased after her asking her how to use the keys.”
“She said ‘I have kids, just take the car’ and the man ran back toward her vehicle,” the warrant says.
At that point, the victim’s mother, who had heard the victim screaming, came out of the house.
The man lifted his shirt to display the gun and asked her how to use the keys.
Instead, she yelled “Jesus,” and the suspect fled, leaving the keys.
Police retrieved several surveillance videos from the area. Officer Michael Barry identified the suspect as Hamilton, though the victim and her mother were unable to pick him out in photo arrays.
Three weeks after the stickup, Hunt was notified by state police lab that DNA from the vehicle came back as possibly linked to other cases in which Hamilton was a suspect.
The warrant says further samples were sent to the lab and compared with Hamilton’s, and the results linked him to the vehicle.