A convicted felon serving a nine-year sentence for the armed robbery of a West Hartford jewelry store testified Friday at the murder trial of LaShawn R. Cecil that Cecil sold him a 9 mm handgun in the early morning hours of Dec. 14, 2011.

The state alleges Cecil fired a 9 mm through the door of 26-year-old Jaclyn Wirth's Norwich apartment that morning, inflicting fatal gunshot wounds on the stay-at-home mom. Arrested in 2015, Cecil is on trial in New London Superior Court.  

On Friday morning prosecutor Stephen M. Carney called to the witness stand the first of several convicted felons who provided information to the police during the protracted investigation into Wirth's death. 

Luis Burgos, 43, wearing shackles and an orange prison jumpsuit on the witness stand, testified that he was sitting outside his Shetucket Avenue home about 1:30 a.m., letting his pit bull Sky run around the neighborhood, when Cecil, whom he knew as "BI," came by dressed in dark clothes. He said Cecil went into his nearby apartment and came out 15 to 20 minutes later wearing a red hooded sweatshirt and asked him if he still was looking to buy a gun.

Burgos said he paid $250 for a 9 mm handgun, which said "Llama" on the side.

The next morning, when he learned of Wirth's death, Burgos said he took apart the gun and threw it in three pieces "as far as my arm could throw them" into the Thames River. He said he was on parole at the time, and that when a crime occurs in the area, parole officers tend to conduct searches of parolees' homes.

Four years later, Burgos, who said he provided information to police to clear his own name, led police to a fishing spot on the Thames off Route 12 in Ledyard. A dive team that conducted a five-day search recovered an aftermarket magazine that would fit a Beretta or Taurus handgun.

When defense attorney Christopher Duby noted Burgos had testified that the gun he threw in the river was a Llama brand, the prosecutor cited an earlier report in which Burgos said it was a Beretta.

Duby is expected to challenge the credibility of all of the prison informants who provide testimony for the state and to call an expert who will testify that prisoners are not reliable witnesses.

Burgos said the state has not promised him anything in exchange for his testimony, but is hoping it could lead to a reduction of his sentence. The prosecutor's office did, however, tell him twice that they would call their counterparts in Hartford, where he was convicted, and let them know he had testified for the state.

Under cross-examination, Burgos appeared impatient with Duby's continuous questions about the armed robbery. He said the gun he threw in the river had nothing to do with the armed robbery.

Duby asked Burgos if he had been "offered a job" by Norwich Det. James Curtis, who has since retired. Burgos said yes. Duby produced a letter that Burgos had written to Curtis in 2014 that said, "When will I be able to start the process for reducing my sentence?" according to testimony.

Later Friday, the state called Samantha Whitcher, who said she dated Cecil for about a year. Asked to identify him in the courtroom, she pointed at him without looking at him. Under questioning by Carney, she admitted Cecil had provided her with the drug Molly. She said that once, as they were arguing, he said to her, "I'll kill you like I killed that girl in Norwich." She said she thought it was a joke. Whitcher also said that Cecil told her he had a gun that he kept at the home of Evette Nevis, his children's mother. Whitcher said she had never known Cecil to be violent.

Also testifying were two women who dated Harold "Haas" Butler, who the state alleges sent Cecil to Wirth's apartment to collect a $50 drug debt from Ezekiel "Juney" Boyce, the brother of Wirth's incarcerated boyfriend.  Elizabeth Jayne, who has an 18-year-old son with Butler, testified that in December 2011, Butler had a cellphone that was in her name. She also testified that in August 2015, during a phone call from Butler, who was incarcerated, she read to him a newspaper article about the Wirth case that mentioned his name.

April Ramos testified that she has a daughter with Butler and that she, too, provided him with a cellphone in her name. She said that on the night of Wirth's death, Butler was home beginning at 9 a.m. They woke up at 4 a.m., she said, because their phone would not stop ringing, and learned of Wirth's death. 

Ramos said she was present when "Juney" Boyce borrowed $50 from Butler about six months before the homicide. She said the two men are good friends and that they had not argued about the debt when they saw him the previous night.

The trial resumes Monday.

k.florin@theday.com