HARTFORD — A Connecticut appeals court has upheld the murder conviction of a Bridgeport man in the fatal shooting of an 8-year-old boy who was scheduled to testify in another murder case.
Adrian Peeler had argued that his attorneys failed to call a key witness who would have contradicted testimony from a woman who told jurors she saw him shoot Leroy “B.J.” Brown Jr. and Brown’s mother, Karen Clarke, to death inside their home in January 1999.
The boy was to be a witness in a murder case against Peeler’s brother, Russell, who allegedly ordered his younger brother to kill Brown.
The Appellate Court ruled Monday that lawyers failed to show that testimony from the man, a crack cocaine user, would have been helpful. It also rejected Peeler’s claim that telephone records from the day of the murder would have helped his defense.
