(Waterbury, CT) – Maureen T. Platt, State’s Attorney for the Judicial District of Waterbury, today announced that a jury in Waterbury Superior Court on October 24, 2024, found Gerome Phillips, age 27, of the Bronx borough of New York City, guilty of Murder, in violation of Connecticut General Statutes § 53a-54a. The Honorable Hunchu Kwak presided over the jury trial.
According to evidence introduced at trial, the defendant fatally shot the victim, James David Smith, age 25, outside his home on Chestnut Street in Waterbury on May 13, 2021. The victim was moving into his new apartment in Waterbury when a man wearing a black surgical mask, a hoodie over his head, a vinyl glove on his left hand and a gun covered by a shopping bag in his right hand snuck up behind the victim and shot him in the head several times, killing him. The shooter fled the scene. The shooter was later identified as Gerome Phillips, who on May 13, 2021 was living in Waterbury. Phillips then fled to Bronx, N.Y. where he was apprehended in June 2021. Extensive work by the Waterbury Police Department in recovering surveillance videos from local businesses and homes enabled the police to track the defendant back to his home where his getaway car was located nearby. The murder itself was caught on surveillance cameras located in the housing complex the victim was moving to. The vinyl glove the defendant was wearing was located in the getaway car. The glove tested positive for gunshot residue and the defendant’s DNA.
The case was prosecuted by Special Assistant State’s Attorney Stephen J. Sedensky III, with Inspector Gary Pelosi and a strong investigation by the Waterbury Police Department.
Sentencing is scheduled for January 16, 2025 in Waterbury Superior Court.