Hamden Murder Was Robbery Gone Wrong: Co-Defendant

A co-defendant in the murder case of Hamden’s Larry Dildy testified Monday that the original plan was to rob him of money or pills before a fight broke out and he was fatally shot on a Sunday morning in 2014.

William Coutermash, 35, of East Haven, also testified that defendant Nicholas Papantoniou went into Dildy’s Circular Avenue home alone on that October morning, got into a fight and then fatally shot Dildy, according to the New Haven Register.

Randall Beach of the Register reports that Coutermash said that he helped come up with the planned robbery with Papantoniou, 39, of Stratford, and they expected Dildy to be at church. Neither man knew Dildy, 56, but were told by a friend that he sold pills and would have a lot of pills or money at his home and he was a churchgoer, according to Coutermash.

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When they saw his car was still at the house, they waited for a bit before Coutermash gave Papantoniou a gun that he said was for “mostly intimidation,” according to Beach.

Papantoniou, who was also known as “Nickel P” while performing as a hip-hop artist in the area’s music scene, was arrested by Hamden Police in November of 2014 and charged with felony murder, home invasion, related conspiracy charges and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and removing identification marks from a firearm.

Coutermash was originally charged with felony murder, conspiracy to commit home invasion and other charges but told jurors on Monday that has part of a plea deal he pleaded guilty to two reduced charges and faces a maximum of 18 years in jail and agreed to testify, according to Beach.

Read more about Monday’s court hearing at the New Haven Register here.

Pictured: Nicholas Papantoniou / Hamden Police Department photo