Shelton party host, witnesses testify about fatal stabbing of Fairfield Prep student
Tyler Rich, now 21, relived the night of May 14, 2022, when what began as a get-together for about 30 friends ended in violence.
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Testimony in the trial of Raul “Lito” Valle, who’s accused of stabbing and killing 17-year-old Fairfield Prep athlete Jimmy McGrath at a house party in Shelton, resumed Monday at Milford Superior Court with the party’s host on the stand.
Tyler Rich, now 21, relived the night of May 14, 2022, when what began as a get-together for about 30 friends ended in violence.
Rich, who was a senior at Shelton High School at the time, told the jury the party at his home on Laurel Glen Drive wasn’t anything crazy—mostly Shelton High School students and graduates hanging out in his basement, listening to music and drinking some beers and seltzers.
Rich said things changed when Valle and a group of other St. Joseph High School kids pulled up in an SUV and refused to leave, despite Rich’s repeated requests.
“I don't know why you guys are here. You're not welcome at my house, and you need to leave,” Rich testified he told them.
Tensions only escalated as the SUV drove up and down the street, with kids throwing things from the vehicle, according to Rich. He said things culminated with Valle and a couple of his friends in Rich’s front yard.
Rich said Valle’s friend pushed him backwards, which is when he realized Valle was about to sucker punch one of Rich’s friends.
“Lito went to swing on him, so I stepped up into it and punched him in the face instead,” Rich testified.
He said one of Valle’s friends was immediately on top of him and forced him to the ground, so Rich lost track of Valle.
“At that point in time did you have any weapons on you?” asked Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Marc Durso.
“No,” Rich said.
“Did any of your friends have weapons?” Durso continued.
“Nope,” Rich said.
But the prosecution alleges Valle had a knife and stabbed McGrath and three other teens.
Valle, now 20, was 16 at the time but charged as an adult. He’s on trial for murder and three counts of assault.
Rich recalled seeing McGrath, whom he called one of his best friends, bleed out on his front lawn.
“Upon realizing how severe his wound was and seeing him have to struggle for his last breaths, I had to take myself away from the situation and sat on my back steps and waited for law enforcement to get there,” Rich testified.
On cross examination, Valle’s attorney Kevin Smith, hammered Rich about not initially telling police there was drinking at the party or that he was the one who threw the first punch and started the fight.
Smith also took aim at Rich’s first statement to police that he saw Valle flashing a knife—something Rich later withdrew and clarified he’d heard other people saw.
Enrico Feola, now 20, was also at the party and testified he did see Valle with a knife minutes before the fight broke out.
Feola, who was 17 and a Shelton High School student at the time, told the jury that Valle was holding a blade when Feola had a brief conversation with him telling him to leave.
The prosecution alleges the animosity began earlier that night at a party on Lazy Brook Road when Valle and his friends got into it with a different group from Shelton High School who later showed up at Rich's.
The final witness on the trial's third day was Faison Teele, one of the four teenagers Valle is accused of stabbing that night.
Teele was a 17-year-old Shelton High student at the time and said he joined in the fight and threw some kicks and stomps but stopped after about 20 seconds. That’s when he saw one of his friends lying on the ground, unable to move his legs because he’d been stabbed, Teele testified.
He said McGrath was sitting next to him, bleeding out.
Teele himself had also been stabbed but didn’t realize it initially.
“Someone came up to me with a flashlight and they were like, ‘Faison—your arm.’ I saw there was like a big piece of fat hanging out of my arm. There was blood, like bleeding down the side of me,” Teele told the jury, adding he had no recollection of being stabbed. “There was so much adrenaline running through my body. I didn’t have any idea there was a knife or anything.”
Teele is expected to be back on the stand Tuesday morning.
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