New Haven Man, 27, Pleads Guilty In Robbery 'Cold Case:' Feds

NEW HAVEN, CT —After a cold case investigation by police and the ATF, a 27-year-old man to pleaded guilty to a federal charge related to his role in the 2015 robbery of a New Haven chicken wing spot where an employee was shot, prosecutors announced.

Tythrone Ford of New Haven faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on a charge of attempted interference with commerce by robbery, according to the office of the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

The ATF, FBI and Acting New Haven Police Chief Renee Dominguez made the announcement Tuesday.

According to court documents and statements made in court, prosecutors said, on the night of April 11, 2015, Ford and two other men went into Smokin’ Wings on Congress Avenue and "demanded money at gunpoint." Prosecutors said that one Ford’s "associates" shot a female employee in the stomach and then the three took off. When police got there, they found a .22 caliber revolver in a nearby trash can.

Just eight hours before that 11 p.m. robbery, federal authorities said, two of Ford’s "associates, armed with handguns," went into Sapiaos Market in Bridgeport, demanded money and market owner Jose Salgado was shot and killed with Ford waiting in a car outside, prosecutors said.

The Acting U.S. Attorney said that a forensic analysis of the gun found in the trash can by the wing spot, and bullets found at that scene and the one in Bridgeport "revealed that the gun was used in both shootings." And, federal authorities said, "DNA collected from the gun revealed that both Ford and one of his associates possessed the gun."

Ford, who pleaded guilty, has been detained since he was arrested in December of 2019. He'll be sentenced Dec. 14.

Identified by police as a member of the Grape Street Crips when he was arrested in 2012 in connection with the shooting of a toddler during a gang war, Ford spent several years in state prison related to the charge — of which he was found guilty in that case; conspiracy to commit first-degree assault. Though sentenced to 8 years, he served three and then, over the course of the next five years, served at least two more years for repeated probation violations, court records show.

The 2015 robbery occurred while he was on probation.

The "cold case investigation" was done by the ATF and the New Haven Police Department, with the assistance of the Connecticut Forensic Science Laboratory.