A Derby man charged in two separate stabbings on Hawkins Avenue in 2010 has accepted a plea deal that will put him in prison for six years, the New Haven Register reported Saturday.
Stephan Coney, of Derby, is scheduled to be sentenced May 4.
He accepted the plea deal during a court appearance Wednesday.
Coney, 19 at the time of his arrest, was accused of stabbing men on May 19 and July 6. The crimes were part of a wave of violence in the late spring and summer of 2010, prompting city Aldermen to consider a local law that would register certain properties a “chronic nuisance” if police continually have to report there.
In the May stabbing, Coney told police that he was about to get jumped behind a residence on Hawkins Street and that he stabbed one of his young attackers in self defense.
The victim — who initially wouldn’t talk to police — said Coney attacked him because one of the victim’s friends insulted Coney’s aunt. The victim had to undergo surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital to repair a puncture wound in his intestines.
Both Coney and the victim in the first stabbing mention the crime was gang related and talked to police about a Derby youth gang called “The Purple City Goons,” according to court documents.
In the second attack, Coney chased a man down Hawkins Street and stabbed him with a “claw-like” knife in front of the Over the Hill Tavern. The victim suffered a punctured lung. The motivation for that crime also involves the alleged disrespect shown to Coney’s aunt.
