Norwich murder re-trial begins with sounds of anguish. Jurors hear 911 call after death.

NEW LONDON – Recorded wails of anguish filled a New London Superior Court room on Monday as the re-trial of a man accused of murdering a Norwich woman seven years ago began.

On the 911 call from June 15, 2015, Jean Joseph can be heard howling and sobbing to a Norwich police dispatcher about his discovery of the bloodied body of his girlfriend, 25-year-old Casey Chadwick, inside a closet of her 16 Spaulding St. second-floor apartment that afternoon.

“She’s dead,” Joseph cried. “Please, this can’t be happening. It’s bad. It’s bad. It’s bad. It’s bad.”

As the recording was played, Jean Jacques, the 47-year-old man accused of killing Chadwick, occasionally glanced over at the 12 jurors and four alternates charged with deciding his fate as he shuffled thick case folders around a table.

Jean Jacques with his attorney Sebastian DeSantis in 2019 during his arraignment on his re-trial for the murder of Casey Chadwick at New London Superior Court.

An interpreter translated the proceedings for Jacques, a Haitian national who six years ago was convicted in the same New London courthouse of murdering Chadwick and later sentenced to 60 years in prison.

That conviction was overturned by the state Supreme Court in 2019 which ruled a Norwich police search of Jacques’ apartment that turned up Chadwick’s cell phone and drugs taken from her apartment was not legal.

Norwich patrolman Matthew Goddu described arriving at Chadwick’s residence and noting its disarray, as well as a strong odor of cleaning chemicals permeating the apartment.

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Goddu, under direct examination by Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Christa Baker, who is prosecuting the case with Assistant State’s Attorney Marissa Goldberg, said he found Chadwick slumped lifeless in a living room closet with a large laceration on the right side of her neck.

Chadwick had been stabbed and slashed 15 times in the neck and face, according to the medical examiner’s office.

Jacques’ attorney, Sebastian DeSantis, was set to cross-examine Goddu Monday afternoon.

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Joseph, an admitted drug dealer who is slated to take the stand on Tuesday, testified during a 2016 probable cause hearing that half an ounce of crack he had stored at Chadwick’s apartment was missing.

Jacques was charged with Chadwick’s murder 10 days after her body was found. Norwich police suspected Jacques had murdered Chadwick as part of an alleged drug quarrel with Joseph.

At the time of his arrest, Jacques was on parole after serving 15 years on an attempted murder conviction for shooting a woman in the head during a 1996 dispute in Norwich. The victim’s boyfriend died in that incident.

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Federal authorities have been roundly criticized for failing to deport Jacques on at least three occasions since 2002, including after his release from prison in 2015.

During Jacques’s first trial, authorities presented evidence gathered by detectives after a July 2015 search of his Crossway Street apartment in Norwich. That search, prompted by a tip from Jacques’ cellmate, turned up Chadwick’s cell phone and crack cocaine from inside a bathroom wall.

Investigators initially searched Jacques’ apartment with permission from his landlord and later returned with a warrant after the evidence was spotted. But the state Supreme Court ruled that Norwich police violated Jacques’ privacy when they conducted the first search and overturned his conviction.

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In their appeal supporting the lawfulness of the police search, prosecutors argued that Jacques’ lease had expired five days earlier; he made no attempt to have family members or friends extend his lease or collect his possessions; and the landlord had bagged up and removed his belongings and was preparing the apartment to rent to someone else.

Jacques’ re-trial, overseen by Judge Shari Murphy, is expected to last two weeks.

John Penney can be reached at jpenney@norwichbulletin.com or at (860) 857-6965

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Jean Jacques re-trial in murder of Norwich’s Casey Chadwick begins