The number of homicide cases on the docket in New London Superior Court had waned in recent years but is on the rise.

Eleven murder or manslaughter cases are pending in the so-called Part A court where major crimes are tried, two of them the result of fatal stabbings that occurred within a week of each other last month. Additional arrests for recent homicides under investigation in New London and Sprague could add to the caseload along with the suspicious deaths of a Griswold couple in a fatal fire on Dec. 20.

Court staff say they are coping with the increase in homicide cases, along with a steady flow of drug-fueled robberies and other crimes, despite staff reductions in recent years due to state budget problems.

"When I first got here in 2013, there were 22 pending murder or manslaughter cases," said Hillary B. Strackbein, chief administrative judge for the New London Judicial District. "Everyone was shocked there were so many. We resolved a lot of them and it was quiet for a while. All of the sudden there's been an uptick."

Strackbein presides over Courtroom 2 on Huntington Street, where the accused killers make regular appearances as prosecutors and defense attorneys conduct pretrial negotiations in an attempt to resolve the cases short of trial. Cases that are not resolved with plea deals go to trial in the courtrooms of judges Barbara Bailey Jongbloed and Arthur C. Hadden. Surviving family members of victims and the defendants themselves are anxious for their days in court, but Strackbein has to schedule trials based on the availability of judges, attorneys and other staff.

Jongbloed will preside over the trial of 23-year-old Shaquan Lee-Seales, which is scheduled to begin Wednesday in New London before a jury of 12. Lee-Seales is accused of fatally shooting Gilberto Olivencia on Dec. 10, 2015, on Grand Street in New London. In taking his case to trial, Lee-Seales rejected an offer from prosecutor Paul J. Narducci to plead guilty in exchange for a 35-year prison sentence. He remains incarcerated.

Hadden, whose courtroom is in Norwich, is presiding over the upcoming murder trial of Chihan Eric Chyung, who will go before a jury a second time for the June 2, 2009, shooting death of his wife, Paige Anne Bennett. Chyung was convicted of murder and manslaughter at a trial in 2014 and sentenced to 40 years in prison, but the state Supreme Court reversed the conviction in April 2017 and returned it to the trial court. The case was close to jury selection, but last month Chyung's attorney asked to be removed from the case due to "a breakdown in the attorney-client relationship."

Since a hiring freeze was enacted in 2016 within the Division of Criminal Justice, the New London office that prosecutes cases has been unable to replace an inspector, two investigators, three prosecutors and a secretary, according to State's Attorney Michael L. Regan. He said the district been able to hire a per diem investigator and secretary, though continued funding of their positions is not assured. Regan said with the increase in homicide cases, he is enlisting the help of experienced prosecutors in the lower-level courts in New London and Norwich who volunteer to take on Part A cases.

"The man-hours required to prepare for a murder case are something people just don't understand," Regan said. "What makes it even more time-consuming is with the digital age, we have to review hours and hours of videos of interviews and phone records."

He said there is no common theme to explain the five homicide cases that have occurred within the last couple of months.

"I think it's just a spike, hopefully," Regan said "There's no connection between any of these crimes. They're all factually dissimilar."

The public defender's office in the major crimes court, which represents "indigent" clients who can't afford to hire attorneys, has been reduced to two attorneys, an administrative assistant, an investigator and a social worker shared with the Middlesex judicial district.

Chief Public Defender Kevin C. Barrs and attorney M. Fred DeCaprio from the public defender's office have recently taken on new death cases, but other homicide defendants have been assigned to private lawyers under contract with the state to represent indigent clients. In those cases, the in-house public defenders have conflicts of interest, usually because they have previously represented somebody involved in the crime.

"There's so much that goes into it," Barrs said this week. "There are witnesses to talk to and experts to consult with, whether forensic or mental health. The amount of work that the police do, we have to go through with a fine tooth comb. There's a lot of material to review and a lot of people to talk to."

Barrs said drugs and mental illness are behind many of the crimes. Domestic violence and alcohol abuse also have fueled some of the homicides.

In addition to the Lee-Seales and Chyung cases, those that are queued up for trial include that of James F. Hodgdon Jr., who is accused of fatally shooting his wife, Dianna Hodgdon, at their Norwich home on Sept. 7, 2015; David S. McKeever, charged with fatally stabbing his longtime companion, Delma Murphy, in their New London home in November 2015; Patrick Antoine, who is accused of the stabbing death of his wife, Margarette Mady, and her unborn child at their Norwich apartment in June 2016; and Dante A. Hughes, accused of fatally shooting Joey Gingerella in the parking lot of Ryan's Pub in Groton on Dec. 11, 2016.

Newer cases in the pretrial stage include that of James Armstrong, accused of the shooting death of his cousin, Ralph Sebastian Sidberry, at Sidberry's home in North Stonington on April 12, 2017; Matese Hinds, charged with fatally stabbing Raheeim General in New London on Oct. 24, 2017; and Edgar Sanchez-Valencia, charged with the beating death in New London of Marlon Beasley on Nov. 28, 2016.

The two newest cases on the docket are those of Patrick McInerney, who is charged with the Dec. 10, 2017 stabbing death of Robert Pomerleau in New London, and Jerome Hudson, charged with fatally stabbing Travon Brown in New London on Dec. 17, 2017.

 k.florin@theday.com