Shaquan Lee-Seales, who is charged with fatally shooting Gilberto Olivencia in New London on Dec. 11, 2015, is linked to the crime by the statements of several eyewitnesses, a thumbprint on a cigarette pack that was found near the crime scene and phone records, according to an arrest warrant affidavit that was unsealed Thursday in New London Superior Court.

Lee-Seales, 22, has been held in lieu of bond since New London police charged him in June with murder, first-degree reckless endangerment, illegal discharge of a firearm, carrying a pistol without a permit and first-degree robbery.

Several of his family members, along with several of the victim's relatives, attended his court appearance Thursday, where his attorney, Sebastian O. DeSantis, informed Judge Hillary B. Strackbein that Lee-Seales was exercising his right to a probable cause hearing.

The judge set the hearing for Nov. 17.

On that date, prosecutor Paul J. Narducci is expected to call witnesses in an effort to convince the court there is enough evidence to prosecute Lee-Seales for murder.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit prepared by city police Det. William Pero, Lee-Seales got out of a car and fired multiple shots toward Olivencia and several others following an earlier encounter on State Pier Road, where Lee-Seales allegedly had assaulted and robbed a 17-year-old drug dealer who "disrespected" him.

According to the affidavit, police received several reports of shots fired in the area of Connecticut Avenue and Grand Street shortly before 11 a.m. on Dec. 10.

When they arrived, Olivencia was lying on the front porch of 8 Grand St., gasping for breath, with a large amount of blood on his shirt. He was unable to answer questions about who shot him.

He was pronounced dead at 12:43 a.m. at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital.

The state Office of Chief Medical Examiner ruled Olivencia died of a gunshot wound to the chest and that the bullet entered into the back and exited his right upper chest. 

Police said they found six spent shell casings from a 9 mm handgun scattered on the south corner of Grand Street and Connecticut Avenue. One projectile traveled the length of Grand Street and was recovered from an inside wall of a 42 Jefferson Ave. residence, according to the warrant affidavit.

The police also recovered a pack of 14 Newport cigarettes in the middle of Connecticut Avenue between Grand and West Coit streets. In May, the state forensics laboratory notified the detective bureau that the top corner of the cigarette box contained Lee-Seales' thumbprint.

Pero learned that earlier the night of the shooting, a 17-year-old had been assaulted during a drug-related robbery at an apartment complex at 93 State Pier Road, according to the warrant. Arrested while walking down the street with a large kitchen knife, the juvenile complied with an order to drop the knife but said, "I want my revenge." He was taken to the hospital for treatment and issued a juvenile summons.

In a videotaped interview with Dets. Pero and Richard Curcuro on Dec. 30, the 17-year-old, identified only as "Witness 1" in the affidavit, said he had been selling drugs at the housing complex at 93 State Pier Road for another man, identified only as "Witness 2," when he received a phone call from Lee-Seales, whom he knew as "Shay."

He said Lee-Seales, also a drug dealer, had requested an amount of narcotics, but they disagreed about where to meet. He said his employer, "Witness 2," called him later and told him not to be disrespectful and to "take care of business with Shay," according to the affidavit.

The 17-year-old said he met Lee-Seales and two others in the driveway of the State Pier Road apartment complex. One of the men was holding a gun, he said, and Lee-Seales rushed him, punched him and knocked him to the ground, where he continued kicking him then took from his pants pocket money, drugs and a cellphone he used for drug transactions.

He said Lee-Seales and the others ran down the driveway and left in a white sport utility vehicle.

The police recovered video of the encounter from the housing complex surveillance cameras, according to the warrant. They later obtained phone records indicating several calls made between Lee-Seales and the so-called "drug phone."

The 17-year-old told police that he met the man for whom he was selling drugs at 8 Grand St. and that the man said he had tried to set up Lee-Seales to be shot at Bates Woods Park but it didn't work out.

The teen said he was standing in the roadway on Grand Street with Olivencia when he saw Lee-Seales exit a white SUV at the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Grand Street and begin firing a gun in their direction. He said Lee-Seales began walking toward them while continuing to fire the gun.

He said another man, whom he knows as "H," also got out of the car with a gun but did not fire it. He said there was a third person he knows in the SUV whose age he estimated at 14 years old.

He said he ran and ducked behind some bushes until the shooting was over.

The detectives said they interviewed the 17-year-old's drug boss, who told them Lee-Seales, who sold crack cocaine, wanted to work with him, but that he sold heroin and didn't trust Lee-Seales, with whom he had past differences over women and who was a "hot head."

He said after learning Lee-Seales robbed the teen, he planned to attack Lee-Seales and had somebody he knew arrange a drug deal with Lee-Seales in the parking lot of the New London Shopping Center. At the shopping center, another associate talked him out of attacking Lee-Seales because there were too many people around, he said.

He said they tried to follow Lee-Seales, but Lee-Seales caught on and eluded them, he said. They exchanged insults over the phone, but he said Lee-Seales "refused to meet and fight it out man to man," according to the affidavit.

He, too, said he was standing on Grand Street when Lee-Seales got out of a white SUV and began firing in his direction. He said Olivencia had been standing on the sidewalk and was backing up when the shooting started.

The police recovered from a homeowner on West Coit Street video footage from a home security system that showed a white SUV, appearing to match a GMC Yukon that had been connected to Lee-Seales during a Nov. 18 traffic stop, driving toward Blackhall Street around the time of the shooting, according to the affidavit.

Lee-Seales, interviewed by police after he was arrested on narcotics charges in March, said he didn't know anything about the homicide and was visiting somebody on Cedar Grove Avenue when it occurred.

k.florin@theday.com