BRIDGEPORT — Gerund Mickens was sentenced to life in prison Monday for his involvement in the kidnapping, robbery and execution style murder of Charles Teasley in 2009.
Hartford police responded to Colebrook Street in response to a 911 phone call about a dead body being found in the back seat of a car.
Officers found Teasley dead in the back seat of his own 1999 Acura TL. He suffered multiple gunshot wounds to his head and face, and his hands were zip-tied behind his back.
An investigation revealed that Mickens, Harold Cook, Terrell Hunter and Jesus Ashanti were involved armed robberies of people they thought were drug dealers.
Cook set up a deal with Teasley to buy cocaine.
After meeting with Teasley, Cook, Mickens, Hunter and Ashanti went to the location and kidnapped Teasley.
Zip-ties were used to bind Teasley’s hands. He was then forced into the back seat of his own car.
The men threatened Teasley at gunpoint, assaulted him and forced him to call his girlfriend to tell her to bring to them a safe that Teasley had kept at his house in West Hartford.
The men drove to the house and got the safe. Cook, Mickens and Hunter then drove Teasley to the Colebrook Street area of Hartford, and Ashanti followed them in a separate car.
On the way back to Hartford, Hunter and Cook shot Teasley in the head causing his death. After arriving on Colebrook Street, Cook, Mickens and Hunter left the Acura and Teasley’s body, and then drove from the area in the car driven by Ashanti.
Cook, Mickens and Hunter have been in police custody since their arrests on April 4, 2017.
On August 21, 2018, they were found guilty of one count of kidnapping resulting in death, one count of using a firearm during a kidnapping and causing a death, and one count of using a firearm during a Hobbs Act robbery and causing a death.
Cook and Hunter await sentencing and faces a mandatory term of life imprisonment without parole.
Ashanti pleaded guilty on July 16, 2018, to one count of kidnapping resulting in death, one count of using a firearm during a kidnapping and causing a death, and one count of using a firearm during a robbery and causing a death. He also awaits sentencing.
