Warrants Detail Late Breaks That Helped Close 3-Year Homicide Investigation

by Thomas Breen

Three years to the month after 25-year-old New Havener Ramon Yates was shot and killed on Dixwell Avenue, Det. Michael Haines found out that the Naugatuck Police Department had located a “Taurus model 709 slim 9mm handgun” in their town.

Haines also later received a National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) lead notification indicating that this gun was “forensically linked” to Yates’ homicide.

In May, the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Division of Scientific Services provided a report indicating that some of the 11 9mm fired cartridge casings found near the scene of Yates’ 2023 death had indeed originated from this very same gun.

And on July 4, after arresting a 19-year-old New Havener on unrelated firearm charges, Haines was able to re-interview him about the 2023 homicide for which he had long been a suspect.

“After he denied knowing Yates,” the 19-year-old “later stated he heard about Yates and [had] seen him around a couple of times. When asked how he heard about Yates, he paused in silence while placing his head down, then asked if he could talk to me ‘tomorrow.’ At the conclusion of the interview, [the 19-year-old] stated that this was his first arrest as an adult (referring to the July 4, 2026, arrest) and asked how the court process works. He asked how sentencing works and if an arrest warrant for Yates murder had been issued.”

Those details and many more are included in two 17-page arrest warrant affidavits written by Haines for a 19-year-old New Havener and a 20-year-old New Havener who were both arrested on July 11 for the 2023 murder of Yates.

Both have been charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and carrying a pistol without a permit. Both have not yet entered pleas to those charges. Both are currently being held on $2 million bonds.

Police Chief David Zannelli announced the two murder arrests on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Zannelli, Mayor Justin Elicker, Lt. Derek Gartner, and members of Yates’ family gathered at police headquarters at 1 Union Ave. for a press conference marking the arrests. The Independent also obtained copies of the relevant arrest warrants on Wednesday.

Yates, whose nickname was “Ray Ray,” “was waiting for the bus at the time that he was shot” near the intersection of Dixwell Avenue and West Hazel Street at around 6:35 p.m. on March 15, 2023, Elicker said.

Yates “was by all accounts a wonderful young man,” who graduated from Wilbur Cross High School in 2016 and loved basketball and wrestling. He had started working at barbershops in the area soon before his death, and hoped to make a career out of it.

“Ramon was a family-oriented, caring, respectful, and fun-loving individual,” Zannelli said while reading aloud a letter written by Yates’ mom, Tiffany. “The pain of losing Ramon continues to be felt” every day by those who loved him.

“His legacy of kindness, resilience, and compassion will never be forgotten.”

Zannelli stressed during Wednesday’s presser that “the motive remains unclear” for why these two arrestees allegedly shot and killed Yates. He said that the years-long investigation “relied heavily on video surveillance, technology, and physical and digital evidence,” as well as DNA testing.

Haines’ warrants detail that three years of police work — from reviewing surveillance footage and interviewing key witness and suspects in the immediate aftermath of Yates’ homicide, to the finding of the gun in March 2026 and various state-issued DNA analyses from 2025 and 2026 that pointed police towards the two men they ultimately arrested.

As Haines summarized at the end of each affidavit, there is “probable cause” to believe that these two arrestees were “jointly involved” in Yates’ homicide.

Surveillance footage from multiple locations showed both suspects arriving at the scene in a 2020 black Nissan Pathfinder driven by one of the suspect’s moms. “No other individuals were observed taking that route or present during that critical five-minute window leading up to the gunfire at approximately 6:35 p.m.,” Haines wrote.

Cellphone records also put the two suspects in the area of the crime scene at the time of the shooting.

“A black hooded puffy jacket,” believed to belong to one of the suspects, was seized from the Nissan Pathfinder “and tested positive for gunshot residue, suggesting direct association with firearm activity.” Surveillance footage also showed one of the suspects wearing the jacket. Still another piece of clothing — a black sweatshirt bearing “223,” an apparent reference to one of the suspect’s brothers, who was shot and killed in 2022 — was also recovered from one of the suspect’s homes and tested positive for gunshot residue as well as the suspects DNA.

“Furthermore, witness statements corroborate that both suspects were observed together before and after the homicide, reinforcing their collective involvement.”

And so, Haines concluded, there is probable cause to believe that each of these suspects has committed murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and carrying a pistol without a permit.