Bailey
ANSONIA-DERBY – A 41-year-old man involved in two shootouts in Ansonia pleaded guilty on March 1 to four charges connected to three criminal cases.
Daycus Bailey, who already spent seven years in prison for trying to kill a man in Derby in 2009, is scheduled to be sentenced on May 24 in Superior Court in Milford.
Bailey has a total of six court cases pending for crimes in Ansonia, Derby, New Haven and Waterbury.
Bailey is expected to receive twelve years in prison, followed by fifteen years of probation, when he returns for sentencing for crimes committed in Ansonia and Derby.
Bailey is well-known to Ansonia officials for his past record. Ansonia Mayor David Cassetti recognized his name when asked about him, and said he had been in touch with Ansonia police about him.
“We got to do everything we can to incarcerate this guy,” Cassetti said of him. “People are petrified on Main Street.”
Bailey was represented in court by Benita Lee. She declined a request for comment from the Valley Indy and said to expect comment on the sentencing date.
Gatison Park Shootout
Court records show Bailey pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a firearm in connection to a June 30, 2022 incident in Ansonia.
On that date, at around 5 p.m., Bailey was at Gatison Park near Third Street, according to an arrest warrant. A gray car pulled up near the park. A man got out of that car and, with his hand around a gun hidden inside a canvas bag, began firing at Bailey.
Bailey fired back, and was shot in the head and abdomen. Witnesses stated that they heard at least ten shots.
While police found Bailey’s shooting to be in self-defense, they said he is not allowed to possess a gun because he’s a convicted felon.
The car believed to have been used by the shooter was found three days later in Bridgeport, riddled with bullet holes and engulfed in flames. Police were unable to identify the shooter.
Bailey told them that he “has people wanting to kill him and will do what he has to protect himself,” according to the warrant.
Downtown Ansonia Shootout
On Dec. 29, 2022, a mother and her two adult children got into a Kia SUV at around 3:30 p.m. after picking up an order at Empanadas Restaurant on Bridge Street in Ansonia.
As they were about to drive away, a man later identified as Bailey ran up to the car. Leaning on the passenger door, he fired several shots from a handgun toward a Jaguar sports car on the street.
Three shots from Bailey’s gun grazed the roof of the Kia. The family was not injured. Two bullets hit nearby businesses. The person in the Jaguar appeared to have fired at Bailey, according to police who reviewed video footage of the incident.
There was another man with Bailey, according to an arrest warrant, but that man did not fire a weapon and isn’t identified in the warrant. Bailey and the other man then ran away toward Main Street.
On Main Street, Bailey threw his gun in the air, and it landed on the roof of E’s Cut and Style. He ran inside the building and discarded some of his clothes, which officers later recovered. Then, he ran back out, and a friend picked him up in a Ford F‑150 in front of Ansonia City Hall, according to the warrant.
Police identified Bailey as the shooter after interviewing a witness and reviewing surveillance footage.
Court records show Bailey was charged with five crimes from the December 2022 shooting. He’s pleaded guilty to one: first degree attempted assault.
Ansonia police are still searching for the other people involved in the two shootouts. Lt. Patrick Lynch said police believe both incidents were drug-related, but that Bailey has not cooperated with police.
Anyone with information on the cases should call Ansonia police at 203 735 1885. Anonymous tips can be left using this link.
Derby Police Chase
Court records also show that Bailey pleaded guilty to engaging police in pursuit and resisting arrest in connection to a Sept. 1, 2021 incident in Derby.
According to a police report, cops suspected Bailey of conducting a drug deal on the corner of Anson Street and Fifth Street at about 3:15 p.m.
Derby police stopped his car on Maple Street, but Bailey took off, according to court documents. He drove slowly at first, according to a warrant, but drove past several stop signs without stopping.
Derby police ended the chase when Bailey crossed the town line into Ansonia. His parole officer was notified, and Bailey was charged in Derby on Oct. 4, 2021.
Parole Violation
In 2011, Bailey admitted in court he was part of a group that purchased a white Ford Crown Victoria in 2009 and used it to ram a motorist who was leaving a business on Chapel Street in Derby. Bailey and his cohorts then shot the man during the ambush.
The victim survived, and had been targeted as part of a series of connected shootings that plagued Derby, Ansonia and New Haven in 2009.
Bailey pleaded guilty to attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, first-degree assault, and conspiracy to commit first-degree assault.
He received a 20-year sentence, that was to be suspended after serving 10 years. Bailey was released on parole in 2018, after serving about seven years.
Given all the criminal charges, authorities also hit him with violating the terms of his parole, to which Bailey also pleaded guilty on March 1.
Bailey has been held at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield since Jan. 12, 2023.
He will appear in court in May via video because he is still recovering from a gunshot wound.
In New Haven, Bailey has charges pending from a Nov. 8, 2022 incident, including criminal possession of a firearm, carrying a pistol without a permit, resisting arrest, illegal possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of narcotics with intent to sell.
In Waterbury, he has pending charges of first-degree conspiracy to commit robbery, first-degree attempted robbery, and driving without a license. That’s all connected to a Nov. 1, 2022 incident.
Police at the scene of a 2009 attempted murder in Derby.
