CT man found guilty in 2019 deadly shooting of N.Y. man he met in prison

A man was found guilty on Thursday of murdering a New York man in Stamford in 2019 whom he had met in a Connecticut prison, officials said.

Rashad Sellers, 30, was found guilty of murder in the death of 26-year-old Stephon Walthrust of Queens, New York in Stamford on March 30, 2019, according to the Division of Criminal Justice and Department of Correction.

Sellers and Walthrust met in a Connecticut prison in 2018 and stayed in touch after their respective releases, the DCJ said.

Records show that Sellers was sentenced to prison in 2014 for breach of peace, in 2016 for drug, firearm and probation violation charges and again in 2016 for violation of probation and carrying a firearm without a permit.

On March 30, 2019, phone records show that Walthrust tried to call Sellers 30 times — and called Sellers’ girlfriend another 13 times — in “an attempt to collect a debt,” according to court testimony and the DCJ.

Walthrust reportedly told friends he was meeting someone to collect money he was owed but never went home.

During Sellers’ trial, witnesses testified that they heard multiple gunshots and saw a person running away from the scene of the shooting about 10:40 p.m. that night.

Video evidence from near the shooting showed the suspect’s vehicle arriving in Stamford at 10:27 p.m. and parking about one block away from the shooting. The suspect, later identified as Sellers, was seen getting out of the vehicle and walking down the block, then running back to the vehicle and getting into the passenger’s side a few minutes later. The vehicle then drove away and got onto the highway at about 10:45 p.m., court records said.

Officers responded to the scene and found Walthrust unresponsive in his vehicle. The passenger side door was open and both windows on the driver’s side appeared to be shot out. Police found three spent bullets at the scene but never found a gun, according to the DCJ.

A local business provided surveillance camera footage that captured a clear image of the suspect. Sellers was identified by his probation officer and parole officer using that image, the DCJ said.

After the shooting, records show that Sellers changed his phone number and searched for news about his crimes on Facebook 52 times, according to the DCJ.

Sellers is set to be sentenced on Oct. 2, the DCJ said.