A Connecticut man has been convicted of second-degree murder in a shooting described by police as drug-related that killed a Massachusetts man in Brookfield a little over a year ago.
A jury Friday returned guilty verdicts for Devon Dennis on several charges, including second-degree murder and attempted murder in the May 12, 2023 shootings that left Juan Sierra, 27, of Springfield, Massachusetts, dead and Miguel Fuentes, 29, also of Springfield, injured, according to court records.
In addition, the Orange County jury found Dennis, 44, of Hartford, Connecticut, guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and cocaine trafficking, according to court records.
The jury acquitted Dennis of a separate manslaughter charge brought in Sierra’s death as well as a count of fentanyl trafficking, court records stated.
Orange County State’s Attorney Colin Seaman, the prosecutor, stated in an email Wednesday that the fentanyl at the center of the trafficking charge was found in a downstairs bedroom of the house that was not the room Dennis occupied.
The jury began its deliberations on Thursday and continued until late Friday afternoon, when it returned the verdicts.
A sentencing date has not yet been set. The charge of second-degree murder alone carries a possible maximum sentence of 20 years to life in prison.
According to charging documents, witnesses reported that Dennis had been staying at the residence where the shooting took place and dealing drugs there. On May 12, when Fuentes and Sierra went to the residence, the charging documents stated, Dennis shot them both.
There was a dispute, witnesses told police, over who could sell drugs to whom, the documents added, and that’s when Dennis shot the two men.
