Judge finds Cecil guilty of gun crime in Wirth murder case
LaShawn R. Cecil, who was found guilty last week of the Dec. 14, 2011, shooting death of Jaclyn Wirth in Norwich, was convicted Wednesday of the additional crime of criminal possession of a firearm.
Judge Barbara Bailey Jongbloed, who presided over the Cecil trial in New London Superior Court, announced the guilty verdict on Wednesday. During the trial, Jongbloed heard evidence pertaining to the additional firearm charge outside the presence of the jury so that the jury would not be prejudiced by Cecil's felony record. Prosecutor Stephen M. Carney had presented the court with evidence of Cecil's felony conviction for sale of narcotics in February 2000, at the age of 16. Convicted felons cannot legally possess firearms.
Cecil faces up to 60 years in prison for the murder charge and up to five years in prison for the firearms charge when Jongbloed sentences him on April 7.
Testimony at the trial revealed that Cecil, armed with a 9 mm handgun, had knocked on the door of Wirth's apartment on East Baltic Street at about 1:30 a.m. while seeking to collect a drug debt or exact revenge on somebody who did not live there at the time. He fired through the door at Wirth, who was home with her two young sons, striking her six times. She was able to dial 911 and stay on the line with a dispatcher and paramedic for several minutes while awaiting first responders, but was pronounced dead a short time later at the William W. Backus Hospital.
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