A Derby man faces up to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to a brutal beating outside an Elizabeth Street convenience store that left another man lying in the parking lot with a fractured skull.
The man — Alonza Willoughby, 22 — has been behind bars since his arrest in the case last August.
According to an arrest warrant, a Derby cop was on routine patrol downtown about 10:30 p.m. April 17, 2015 when she saw a man on the ground in the parking lot of Checkers convenience store at the corner of Elizabeth and Fifth streets.
The man, 19 years old at the time, was bleeding from the mouth. He was eventually diagnosed with a fractured skull, as well as bruising and bleeding to his brain.
Speaking to police days later, he said the last thing he remembered from the night of the assault was being at a carnival across the river in Shelton several hours earlier.
Police pulled video of the parking lot from a surveillance camera which showed the victim standing in front of the store as Willoughby walked out and got into a friend’s car after buying a pack of cigarettes.
But then Willoughby got out of the car and, despite the efforts of two people to hold him back, pushed the man to the ground, kicked him in the face, punched him four times, and then stomped on his head.
In court Thursday, prosecutor Cornelius Kelly said the assault was prompted by the victim drunkenly “running his mouth” to Willoughby as he left the store.
Police developed Willoughby as a suspect after tracing the car he was riding in and determined it was connected to a residence on Howe Avenue in Shelton.
A man there told cops he hadn’t seen Willoughby for days, but that Willoughby had told the man he had gotten into a fight and beat up someone who had insulted his mother.
The man reported that Willoughby told him he had had hit the man he assaulted so hard he had broken his hand and had to go to the hospital. Police later confirmed that Willoughby was treated for a broken hand the day after the beating at Griffin Hospital.
Police finally tracked Willoughby down about two months after the assault — when cops were called to a Hawthorne Avenue home to deal with a dispute between Willoughby and his girlfriend, who was living at the address.
“Willoughby had physically assaulted (the woman) and destroyed the apartment,” the arrest warrant says.
At the time of his arrest, Willoughby was wearing the same sweatshirt he had on while beating the man in the parking lot of the convenience store two months earlier.
After police arrested him in connection with the domestic incident, Willoughby hurled insults at them while being booked at the police station.
Though Kelly said the woman eventually dropped the charges, Willoughby violated a protective order by hanging out with her a few days after his arrest.
A month later, while being processed at the police station on yet another arrest, Kelly said Willoughby was again uncooperative with cops, and was ultimately Tasered after spitting at them.
Willoughby pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree assault, violating a protective order, and two counts of interfering with a police officer before Judge Frank Iannotti at Superior Court in Milford.
A plea deal calls for him to face up to eight years in prison at his Oct. 14 sentencing, with his lawyer, Public Defender Susan Brown, given the right to argue for less jail time.
