Jean Jacques, whose conviction for the June 15, 2015, murder of Casey Chadwick in Norwich was overturned by the state Supreme Court, asked a New London Superior Court judge Thursday to continue his case one more time before he tells her if he would be willing to take a plea deal and resolve the case short of trial.

Judge Hillary B. Strackbein continued the case to Feb. 6, telling Jacques that is his formal "accept or reject" date.

Chadwick's mother, Wendy Hartling, continues to attend Jacques' court appearances and sits in the front row so, she says, she can get a good look at the man who was already convicted of brutally stabbing her 25-year-old daughter and leaving her body in a closet.

Hartling said court officials have told her Jacques, 45, whose conviction and 60-year prison sentence were overturned in July 2019, is likely to reject an offer to plead guilty in exchange for a 40-year prison sentence. She said she is planning to attend his retrial, which she has been told is tentatively scheduled to occur in the summer or fall.

Coincidentally on Thursday, Chadwick's live-in boyfriend, Jean Joseph Eddy, appeared in the same court as Jacques on charges of cocaine dealing. Hartling hugged and kissed the man she knows as "Bugsy" after he stood before the judge and pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiracy to sell narcotics. New London police allege in an arrest warrant affidavit that Eddy was a street-level dealer who obtained cocaine from Anthony Whyte, who federal authorities allege was the leader of a regionwide drug trafficking operation. Eddy would likely be called to testify at Jacques second trial.

Narcotics appeared to have been at the center of Chadwick's death.

At Jacques' first trial, in March 2016, Eddy admitted on the witness stand that he was selling crack cocaine and marijuana at the time of Chadwick's death. He said he was at the home of his son's mother on June 15, 2015, when Chadwick texted him at 11:30 p.m. to let him know that Jacques, or "Zoe," as they called him, was at their apartment on Spaulding Street.

Eddy said that the next day, after he dropped his son off at day care and went to a doctor's appointment, he found Chadwick and the drugs that had been in the home were missing. He testified that he eventually opened the living room closet and found his girlfriend of four years in a sitting position with her throat slashed.

During the trial, the prosecution was allowed to present evidence indicating detectives searched Jacques' apartment at 5 Crossway St. in Norwich on July 15, 2015, based on a tip from Jacques' prison cellmate, and found the victim's cellphone and crack cocaine hidden in a hole in the bathroom wall. The investigators entered the apartment with permission from the landlord, and once they saw the items in the wall, they left and obtained a search and seizure warrant, according to testimony.

The Supreme Court determined police had conducted an illegal, warrantless search of the apartment, overturned Jacques' conviction, and sent it back to Superior Court for a new trial.

Jacques remains incarcerated at the Cheshire Correctional Institution.

Hartling remains outraged that Jacques, a Haitian national, had not been deported after a 1996 conviction for attempted murder. She has testified before Congress about the issue, but the proposal to pass a reform bill dubbed "Casey's Law" has never passed.

In the 1996 case, a shooting on Laurel Hill Avenue in Norwich, Jacques' former girlfriend suffered a serious head injury and her new boyfriend died. Jacques, initially charged with murder, was convicted of attempted murder in connection with the girlfriend's injury and criminal possession of a firearm. He served 15 years for that crime.

Released on parole in 2012, Jacques was detained by Immigrations & Custom Enforcement officials, who attempted to deport him three times. Haiti refused to take him, claiming Jacques did not have the required identification documents. He was detained a total of 205 days and released back into the community.

k.florin@theday.com