Award, Arrest Show Longevity’s 2 Sides

One man got out of prison and said: Yes. I’ll take the help.

One man got out and said he didn’t want help. He got back into the life.

Both men made the news on Wednesday for different reasons — and demonstrated the two ways Project Longevity, New Haven’s most ambitious shooting-prevention effort, is designed to work.

The first man is named Corinthian Hamilton. Since his release from prison last November, he has cooperated with Project Longevity. He went straight. Got two jobs. Went into drug rehab. On Wednesday he was one of 12 community members and law-enforcement members honored by Project Longevity at an annual awards ceremony. (More on the ceremony and the winners later in this article.)

The second man was released from prison a month ago. He turned down a request of help. He was ordered to wear a GPS ankle bracelet. He hung with a gang called the Murderside Brims. He told the cops he planned to shoot someone again.

The police announced Wednesday that, before the man got the chance to do that, they have arrested him again on numerous weapons charges.

Those twin outcomes represent the two different goals of Project Longevity, which New Haven’s police launched in 2012 with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The program targets the small number of criminally involved people most in danger of shooting someone or getting shot. It brings them to ​“check ins” where they hear from relatives of shooting victims, from law enforcement. They are presented with a choice: Accept our help in finding jobs, treatment, training, housing, so you can go straight. Or face hard federal time if you continue gangbanging.

Corinthian Hamilton represents the ideal outcome. It doesn’t necessarily happen most of the time, but that’s where the project’s leaders hope to end up.

The Murderside Brim represents the other point of the program: Keeping after the hardest-core offenders who put the public at risk, and continuing to hold them accountable.

The police very much ​“would have liked seeing him” accept Project Longevity’s offer, Assistant Police Chief Karl Jacobson said Wednesday at a 1 Union Ave. press conference. But, he said, the man’s arrest showed another way that the program works, ​“the enforcement end.”

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Jacobson and the New Haven cops have known the man, who was born in 2000, since he started, and kept, getting in trouble as a ​“juvenile.”

The man has been in and out of prison since then. As an adult, he pleaded guilty in 2018 to felony larceny, assault, and drug-dealing charges in several different cases.

When he got out, Jacobson said, he had a chat with him.

“We want you safe, and out of jail. What can we do to help you?” Jacobson asked.

No reply.

Jacobson spoke to him about the GPS bracelet he would have to wear. ​“This is to help you” so he has an excuse not to commit crimes while with his Murderside Brims associates, Jacobson said.

Months later, the man was locked up again, on a drug possession charge. He got out of prison a month ago.

He was put on a GPS bracelet again. Jacobson dispatched a leader of the department’s shooting task force to try again to convince the man to seek help rather than return to the life.

The man gestured to the GPS: ​“If I’m going to do something,” he said, ​“I’ll do it when it’s off.”

The implication was clear, Jacobson said. ​“We didn’t have much hope” of the man going straight.

So the police kept watch.

Fast forward to late this past Friday night. Lt. Michael Fumiatti, the Fair Haven district manager, noticed members of a group of young men known to cause trouble hanging out in a dark corner of the Mill River Crossing housing complex on Grand Avenue, near a spot where a woman was shot last year while with her young child.

The place where they were hanging out has a standing no-trespassing order. The men were also drinking, which they weren’t supposed to be doing in public, under the law, Fumiatti said.

So he called in plainclothes officers to check it out. They did. They found the group included the man who had just been released from prison and was wearing the GPS bracelet.

They also noticed a handgun (pictured) on the floor of a vehicle beside them. It turned out the vehicle was stolen. It turned out the gun was stolen. It turned out the gun was loaded. And it was a ​“ghost gun,” illegally manufactured, without a serial number.

The cops later viewed surveillance video showing the car pulling up to the scene and a man getting out of it. Meanwhile, they checked the GPS tracker — and found that that was the moment the man arrived on the scene.

Police arrested the man on multiple charges, including felony illegal possession of firearms and of a weapon in a motor vehicle, larceny, and narcotics sales.

“The GPS made the case for us,” Fumiatti said. The man is back behind bars, on a $200,000 bond. Jacobson said federal agents will review the case to see if federal charges can be added, potentially leading to longer incarceration.

Count Me In

While police were discussing that man’s fate Wednesday, Corinthian Hamilton was walking home with an award for getting on the right path.

He was one of 10 recipients of such honors at the fourth annual Project Longevity awards program, held at the police training academy on Wintergreen Avenue.

Hamilton was released from a three-year bid at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in November for a violation against probation charge. He had previously served stints on robbery and larceny charges dating back to 2014.

At the ceremony, he spoke of meeting Virginia Spell shortly before his release. She was teaching an entrepreneurial course there. Hamilton told Virginia that he wanted more help in improving his life. She told him about a program run by her husband, Stacy Spell — Project Longevity. She suggested connecting with him.

He did. He got the pitch about getting help to stay straight. He decided to take it.

Spell held up his end. He provided Hamilton with bus passes, a bed, and Shoprite gift cards, to help Hamilton get by. Spell also helped him to land two jobs — as a food service worker at Yale New Haven Hospital, and with the Connecticut chapter of the NAACP.

He has also entered drug treatment. He said substance abuse was at the root of his previous criminal activity.

“I am in recovery. So a part of being in recovery — sometimes we do things for a habit,” Hamilton said. ​“I’ve been a part of the streets. I’ve been a part of addiction. Sometimes when you are supporting your addiction, you do things that you would not normally do.”

Hamilton, who grew up in the Hill, said when life gets overwhelming, he calls Spell for guidance.

“Those of us who are from the streets of New Haven, it can be a little difficult for us,” Hamilton said. ​“I really advise anybody who is seeking direction to turn towards Project Longevity.”

Spell, a retired New Haven detective who now manages Project Longevity out of the U.S. Attorney’s office, praised Hamilton at Wednesday’s awards ceremony as a humble, teachable individual who has made great strides.

“I’ve kept my eye on him, and I’m going to continue keeping my eye on him to make sure that he stays right,” Spell promised.

“Project Longevity to me has been 100 percent everything, because I’m supported by Stacy,” Hamilton said. ​“He has never denied me anything, and has helped to turn my life around. He just asks me if I know anyone that needs help, to give them his number. “

Community Partners

The other honorees at the ceremony included Daniel Hunt, a citizen who was recognized for organizing community walks alongside the police to promote peace on the streets.

“This was a young man who was organizing a way for police and the community to reconcile. He was aggressive about it, and he got great support,” Spell said. ​“I believe we’ve walked every neighborhood in New Haven, and now Daniel is in Hamden organizing walks there. We expect great things out of him!”

Hunt started organizing community walks in September 2017 to raise gun violence awareness and to unite neighborhoods after losing family members to gun crime. Hunt has known Spell since childhood, when he attended New Haven Reads, where Spell was a tutor. New Haven Reads and the NHPD had a partnership through which he became active with the department.

“My ultimate dream is to become a police officer,” Hunt said. ​“I’ve always wanted to make a difference in my community.”

Officer Nancy Jordan, in her 22nd year as a New Haven cop, was also recognized for her work as a victim services officer.

“I grew up here and I went to school here. I have family members and friends who are in the community,” Jordan said. ​“My reason for becoming a police officer was to not only serve the community as a whole, but the family members, the survivors and victims of homicide.”

Another honoree, Lt. Manmeet Colon, was the top cop in the Newhallville, Dixwell and East Rock neighborhoods until a recent promotion to running the internal affairs division. She said Project Longevity has helped her extend help to people who need it.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Markle (pictured), another recipient, has represented the federal government on joint efforts with city cops. ​“We are each working towards a shared common goal,” Markle said. ​“Reducing, preventing gun violence and saving lives. This is what it takes to make Project Longevity work.”

Other honorees Wednesday were police Lt. Derek Werner of the shooting task force, Lt. Justin Marshall, Parole Officer Domenic Letteri, city Chief Administrative Officer Rebecca Bombero, ex-NHPD Asst. Chief Achilles ​“Archie” Generoso, NHPD Detective Joseph Landiso, and Charles Sherwood and Diana Bunton of the South Central Criminal Justice Administration.