14-Year-Old Stamford Teen Pleads Guilty To Murder: Prosecutor

STAMFORD, CT — A 14-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to one count of felony murder in connection with the May 2021 shooting death of a 32-year-old Stamford man, according to Paul J. Ferencek, who is the State’s Attorney for the Stamford/Norwalk Judicial District.

The teen appeared before a Superior Court Judge on Tuesday. On May 18, 2021 around 2:40 p.m., police responded to 90 Ursula Place on Stamford's East Side on a report that a male homeowner had been shot by intruders, police said.

Police found a man, later identified as Lwidji Brun, dead on his living room floor from three gunshot wounds. Brun's girlfriend and 2-year-old daughter were in the home at the time of the shooting, according to Ferencek.

Investigators reviewed surveillance footage which showed three suspects traveling over one-and-a-half miles from the South End of Stamford to Brun’s home on that day, Ferencek said in a news release Wednesday, citing court records.

The suspects were seen wearing face masks and hoods despite the hot temperatures outside in order to mask their identities, Ferencek said.

Ferencek said that private surveillance footage from the scene of the homicide showed two of the suspects run into the home and the sound of three gunshots shortly thereafter.

All three suspects then ran from the home. Additional surveillance footage showed the suspects changing their appearance and discarding their masks as they fled together, which allowed them to be identified, Ferencek said.

A pair of glasses left behind at the scene contained DNA that matched one of the suspects, a male juvenile, according to Ferencek.

On May 27, 2021, police arrested Rudi Reyna-Morales, 16, and the 14-year-old male juvenile.

The third suspect, Deandre Parsons, 23, was arrested in Massachusetts in July by the United States Marshals Service.

All three were charged with felony murder and home invasion, Ferencek said.

Capt. Richard Conklin praised Sgt. Jennifer Lynch, who spearheaded the investigation, and her team for working on the case.

"This case, if you examine it, is almost a tutorial in homicide investigations. My hat's off to the men and women that worked on this case under the lead of Sgt. Jen Lynch," Conklin said.

Reyna-Morales was initially arraigned in juvenile court but his case was later transferred to the adult docket.

The cases of Reyna-Morales and Parsons are pending in Superior Court.

Due to a 2015 change in the law raising the age at which a juvenile charged with a Class A or Class B felony can be transferred to the adult docket from 14 to 15, the 14-year-old juvenile male’s case remains in juvenile court, Ferencek pointed out.

Ferencek said that due to law in juvenile court, the most the juvenile can be sentenced to is 18 months of probation supervision with residential placement, which may be extended by not more than 12 months by the court for good cause.

If the juvenile has not been convicted of any offenses for at least four years following completion of his sentence, he can petition the court to erase his juvenile record, Ferencek said.

The juvenile had been arrested at least six times prior to this incident for violent crimes, Ferencek said, referencing court records.

Conklin said this case illustrates shortcomings with juvenile laws in the state of Connecticut. He called it "an ominous sign" that the 14-year-old had previously been arrested for multiple violent crimes.

"The fact he can only be sentenced to such a light sentence really gives a cause for concern to the community. In many cases like this, we've had family members reach out and say, 'We can't control this person. We need help.' Unfortunately this kind of festered into a very serious situation. This is certainly an illustration that these relatively new juvenile laws must be reviewed and modified," Conklin said.

Conklin said that while the SPD is adept at following cases that result in arrests, more needs to be done to address the issue of violent crimes.

"What we have to do is work beforehand and prevent these types of incidents," he said. "We have a number of initiatives here that we're working on that will hopefully bear some fruit into the future."