As Kamron DeMoura lay on the pavement behind an old Canal Street factory — blood seeping from this his left ear due to a fractured skull — his “friends” left him to go to McDonald’s to “think things over.”
No one thought to call an ambulance, let alone the police.
So says a warrant used to arrest Brandon Lasky, 19, of Shelton, who pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree assault for his part in a fist fight that left DeMoura hospitalized for nearly a month.
And it all started over a pack of cigarettes.
Lasky faces up to 2 1/2 years in prison and three years of probation. He is scheduled to be sentenced June 2.
Both teens were arrested for the fight in August, police said. At the time, no information was released because both teens were considered youthful offenders, Detective Ben Trabka said Thursday.
There is no court record of DeMoura’s arrest — which could mean he is still considered a youthful offender or he could have been accepted into a pre-trial diversionary court program that eventually clears a defendant’s record.
The Fight
The argument started April 21, witnesses told police. The two teens were at a friend’s house drinking, when DeMoura became angry over missing cigarettes. He and Lasky fought over the cigarettes.
Witnesses told police DeMoura punched Lasky while Lasky sat in a parked car.
Lasky allegedly got out of the car and punched DeMoura in the face, then left.
The next night, the two ran into each other at a Howe Avenue gas station, the arrest warrant says. DeMoura asked for a ride from a third friend, and they all got into his pick-up truck.
DeMoura began hitting Lasky from the back seat of the truck, witnesses told police.
The driver pulled over on Canal Street, and Lasky and DeMoura got out. DeMoura was punching Lasky, and Lasky punched him in the face, the warrant says.
DeMoura fell and hit his head on the pavement.
“Oh my God. I didn’t want to fight this kid in the first place,” one witness told police Lasky said, seeing DeMoura on the ground.
They all got into the truck and drove to McDonald’s, where Lasky washed up his injuries.
Interviewed a month later, DeMoura could not remember details of the fight.
The Aftermath
DeMoura spent almost a month in the hospital. He had a large fracture in his skull, and internal bleeding on both sides of the brain. He was released May 10, 2010.
In the days after the fight, police interviewed several friends, many who are juveniles.
Two of them were in the car the night of the assault.
“Neither of them had a reasonable explanation as to why they didn’t call police when Kamron was lying on the ground,” the warrant said.
In their investigation, police also searched the Housatonic River on a report that DeMoura might have been hit with a tire iron. Police found nothing in the river.
Police also confiscated the pick-up truck, because DeMoura’s injuries were so severe police thought he might have been hit by a car.
But there was no evidence on the truck to suggest that happened.
Charges
Lasky is on probation for a breach of peace conviction from 2009. Judge Burton Kaplan told him Thursday that pleading guilty while on probation is considered a violation of probation.
Lasky also has a sixth-degree larceny charge pending at Superior Court in Milford.
He’s due in court April 13 on that case.
