Testimony: Second teen could have died in Shelton party stabbing; Raul Valle looked for knife before fight
Raul “Lito” Valle’s former classmate testified Valle was “going pretty insane” and searching for a weapon in the SUV they were in right before the fight that killed Fairfield Prep athlete Jimmy McGrath.
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Raul “Lito” Valle’s former classmate testified Valle was “going pretty insane” and searching for a weapon in the SUV they were in right before the fight that killed Fairfield Prep athlete Jimmy McGrath.
“He said, ‘Jack, where is your knife? Where the "f" is your knife?’ And he was looking around in the glove box and the center console,” Keenan Fraczek told the jury on the fifth day of the trial at Milford Superior Court.
Valle was 16 at the time but charged as an adult with murder and three counts of assault. He’s accused of stabbing four teens at a house party on Laurel Glen Drive in Shelton on May 14, 2022. McGrath, who was 17, was the only person who didn’t survive.
But on Wednesday, an emergency room doctor from St. Vincent’s Medical Center told the jury that another teenager, Ryan Heinz, could have lost his life as well, after he was stabbed in his chest and suffered a collapsed lung.
“This can be a deadly injury. Until he was stabilized, the likelihood of him dying was relatively high,” Dr. Ryan Doss said.
Doss' testimony came after Heinz wrapped up his. Heinz first took the stand late Tuesday and returned there Wednesday morning. Along with the wound to his chest, Heinz was also stabbed in his side and thigh.
“I kind of just was over top of the defendant, punched him in the face two times, and then felt a jab in my side. And I look down, and I see the defendant with his right hand bunched up in a ball like this and he's just poking at my side,” Heinz explained gesturing as he spoke. “I hear all these bubbles, like my lung collapsed. I never want to hear that sound again. I got super scared. It haunts me.”
Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Marc Durso showed the jury pictures of Heinz’s injuries as he questioned Heinz about his treatment and recovery.
“Physically, I healed up, but mentally, I’ve never been the same person,” Heinz stated.
“And why is that?" Durso asked.
“I can't stop thinking about that night—like every single day, multiple times a day, I just think about that night. Things that I could've done different. Things that anybody could've done different. I just didn't think things like this happened,” Heinz said. “I didn't know there was people like that out there that really wanted to cause harm.”
The fight followed an earlier one at a party on Lazy Brook Road in Shelton. Heinz said he and a fellow Shelton High School student got into it with a group of St. Joe's kids, including Valle, who roughed him up.
Valle's attorney alleges the brawl that left McGrath dead happened because Heinz and his friends wanted payback and escalated things with and his friends.
"You had reached out to the kids who jumped you and told them to come to Tyler Rich's house at 43 Laurel Glen Drive now that you had your friends with you, right?" attorney Kevin Smith asked on cross-examination.
“I don't recall that,” Heinz replied.
"You don't recall that? Do you generally in your everyday speaking say you don't recall something?" Smith continued, drawing an immediate objection from the prosecution, which the judge sustained.
Smith claims the Shelton High teens were the aggressors and attacked his client, laying the groundwork for a possible self-defense claim.
But Heinz said it was Valle who brought a knife to a fist fight. “Did you anticipate there ever being any weapons used?” Durso asked.
“No,” Heinz stated.
Valle's trial continues Thursday. He previously turned down a plea deal for 40 years in prison.
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