Erika Robinson.
Pumped up on alcohol and drugs, a pom-pom-hatted gang-banger known as “Corn Bread” meant to shoot a man he first fired at inside a New Haven strip club — not the 26-year-old fashion designer killed by one of his errant subsequent bullets.
That revelation emerges in a court document made public Wednesday as “Bread” was arraigned for the Oct. 26 murder of Erika “Hoppy” Robinson.
Police arrested Corn Bread Tuesday afternoon after a two-week manhunt led them to a Hartford apartment where he was staying. In addition to Robinson’s murder, they charged him with five first-degree assault counts as well as criminal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Judge Maureen Keegan ordered Corn Bread’s bond kept at $3 million despite a plea by his attorney to lower it.
Corn Bread was allegedly hanging out with Newhallville gang members at a private after-hours party at the Key Club Cabaret strip club on St. John Street at around 3:30 a.m. when he fired at close range into the abdomen of a young man he knows.
The man ran away. Corn Bread allegedly kept firing. His bullets hit four bystanders, including Robinson. (The others went to the hospital, but survived.)
An arrest warrant affidavit filed in court Wednesday and prepared by veteran New Haven homicide Detective Mike Wuchek, the lead investigator in the case, details the scene as captured by the club’s video cameras:
“The video captured the homicide from numerous angles and including the faces and clothing of the shooter and his associates. The shooter is observed to be a black male with a beard, wearing white sneakers, dark jeans, a light colored zip up sweatshirt with dark strings and an insignia on the left breast and a multi colored winter hat with a ‘Pom Pom’ on the top.
“The video depicts a very large crowd in the front bar area of the club. A group of male subjects are observed dancing and talking with each in the front corner of the room by the stage. Police officers viewed the video footage and recognized several of the subjects from previous police interactions. One of the subjects recognized by police was … [Corn] ‘Bread.’ Members of the intelligence Unit and Street Interdiction Unit recognized [him] immediately as they have been actively purchasing illegal narcotics from him and members of his group and were in the process of completing arrest warrants. …
Corn Bread was “wearing a winter style hat with a white ‘pom pom’ on the top. [He] was the only person in the club wearing such a hat. [He] is observed in close proximity to the [initial] victim and the two interact numerous times. At 3:31 a.m., [he] is seen pulling a handgun and firing on [the initial male victim] numerous times at close range. As [the victim] flees the shots, [Corn Bread] crouches down, hides the gun in his waistband area and exits the club among the large, frantic crowd.”
In addition to seeing Corn Bread’s face clearly on the video, detectives received numerous confirmations of Corn Bread as the shooter from witnesses, according to Wuchek’s affidavit.
The affidavit also cites an interview with someone who described a conversation with Corn Bread. Corn Bread allegedly told this person “he only intended to shoot [the initial male victim] and he did not mean to shoot the other people. [Corn Bread said] he entered the club with a handgun concealed in his underwear. [Corn Bread said] that he was drunk and doing drugs the whole night and he was not ‘in his right mind.’”
“High On Life”
Paul Bass Photo
The mass shooting ignited statewide outrage; the governor rushed to New Haven the same day for a press conference at police headquarters. The mayor has since prepared a set of requested state legislative actions to help rein in violence at nightclubs; four homicides have taken place in or just outside nightclubs this year in New Haven. Click here for a story on the mayor’s plan.
The murder of Robinson also elicited an outpouring of personal grief among relatives and friends of the warm, upbeat young woman, who was developing a hip-hop clothing line that reflected her outlook: “High On Life.”
Her parents, Celeste and Greg Fulcher (pictured above), discussed the heart-breaking events of the day of the murder and their subsequent grief in this interview with the Independent. Wednesday morning they showed up with other relatives and friends to police headquarters to join top cops for a press conference announcing the arrests. They remained silent as Sgt. Al Vazquez described the two-week manhunt for Corn Bread.
“This search has gone a thousand miles north and south from here from days on end,” Chief Dean Esserman said.
Officer Shafiq Abdussabur, a relative of the victim, read a statement on the family’s behalf. Click on the video at the top of the story to watch him deliver it.
“We find comfort and relief” in the arrest, the statement quoted the family as saying. It called on the state to prosecute the case against Corn Bread to the fullest.
R2?
Since the arrest, those familiar with the case have offered conflicting details about what appears to have been a gang-influenced dispute that led up to the shooting; Corn Bread allegedly knew his supposed target, with whom he had been beefing.
Part of the unresolved question is the nature of the gang with which Corn Bread was associated. Numerous people affiliated with the case said that the group is a surviving remnant of the notorious R2 gang, whose leaders went to jail after a federal raid that prompted a former police chief to declare the gang “dismantled.” A younger generation of gang-bangers from the same area have apparently filled the older arrestees’ place and are in the sights of New Haven’s new anti-gang “Project Longevity” initiative.
As the investigation of the Key Club shooting developed, several people involved in the case downplayed R2 connections and sought to portray the gang publicly as dismantled. They said Corn Bread used to belong to R2 but no longer does, or that only “remnants” of the old gang remain, with no official “R2” gang existing anymore.
Others familiar with the case, however, said younger gang members have indeed revived R2, even if it has not returned to the strength it had before the federal raids. One person familiar with the gang said that in fact the members make a point of not advertising themselves as “R2,” especially to law enforcement, because they would then face additional charges if arrested under federal racketeering laws.
In a similar vein, the person said, gang members regularly change their colors to avoid similar racketeering charges: “They don’t want to be implicated.”
Whatever the semantic reality, the challenge of reining in gang violence will continue beyond the prosecution of the latest arrested alleged shooter.
Cora Lewis helped report this story.