NORTH HAVERHILL — A 23-year-old West Lebanon man accused of shooting a Providence College student last fall near the Dartmouth College campus made a second bid to a Superior Court judge on Thursday to be released from jail while awaiting trial.
Gage Young, through his attorney Richard Guerriero, said facts have surfaced since the case was first presented to the court last year that suggest Young wasn’t responsible for the shooting of Massachusetts resident Thomas Elliott on School Street on Nov. 2.
Young, who has been jailed since his November arrest on charges that include first-degree assault, contends Hector Correa, the 17-year-old juvenile whom he was with the night of the shooting, is responsible, and that evidence of new charges against Correa in Connecticut, among other things, show Correa is more likely to have committed the act, Guerriero said.
Both Guerriero and Assistant Grafton County Attorney Mariana Pastore, who is prosecuting the case, said Correa is currently in jail in Connecticut following a recent arrest on charges that allege he was the driver in a drive-by shooting in Bridgeport, Conn., where he has lived off and on.
Prosecutors contend Correa also was the driver during the shooting in Hanover; Guerriero says Young was driving that night.
“Hector Correa is the kind of person who would have committed this crime,” Guerriero said, adding that “Hector Correa has continued to lie” in interviews to protect himself.
Young has maintained his innocence throughout the case, including during a jail phone call to a friend, but Pastore said there is plenty of evidence to suggest Young is both responsible for the shooting and is a danger to the public, and therefore should be held without bail pending trial.
Perhaps the most convincing evidence, she said, is what Young did after the shooting. Young is accused of returning to his parents’ home on Oak Ridge Road in West Lebanon and changing his clothing, something Pastore said is “key evidence that Mr. Young was” the shooter.
That, coupled with his allegedly throwing the gun used in the shooting out of the window of the vehicle after Correa crashed it during a police chase later that evening, shows his guilt, Pastore said.
“If anything, this behavior after-the-fact goes to his intent,” Pastore said.
Correa, who turns 18 next month, initially faced charges as an adult in the case — disobeying an officer and driving without a valid license — but they were dismissed, court documents indicate. But prosecutors have since engaged in a “proffer session” with him that included a capped sentence of 12 months for his conduct in the case, Guerriero said. Proffers typically involve a plea deal in exchange for a defendant’s cooperation in a case, indicating that Correa could still be facing charges.
Guerriero questioned if the state would stick with the plea deal in light of the new Connecticut charges against Correa; if it doesn’t, that could present problems at trial, he said.
Correa, who has told police that Young was the shooter, has given inconsistent statements throughout several interviews, Guerriero claims, saying that speaks to his credibility.
Just who was driving at the time of the shooting was a point of contention during Thursday’s bail hearing.
Young and Correa are seen on various surveillance cameras throughout Lebanon and Hanover on the night in question, and they take turns driving throughout the night, according to prosecutors.
Correa made a video from the passenger seat of Young’s car while Young was buying liquor on the evening in question, and wording on the video stated people “better duck” while Correa held the gun, the attorneys said. The 9 mm gun is registered to Young, and testing showed the bullet lodged in Elliott’s abdomen matched the one fired from Young’s firearm, Pastore said.
Elliott, who was visiting a high school classmate who attends Dartmouth, is left with a scar and “significant trauma,” she said.
Although Guerriero said Young has no prior criminal record and has several ties to the state — reasons he should be released pending trial — Pastore said Young was indicted in Cheshire County in April on an armed robbery charge for allegedly robbing a drug dealer.
Young has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him in the Hanover shooting and West Lebanon chase last fall, which include first- and second-degree assault and being an accomplice to first- and second-degree assault.
The fact that Young faces alternative charges “shows weaknesses” in the state’s case, Guerriero said.
Young’s father, David Young, a former Lebanon police officer, and his mother attended Thursday’s hearing. Members of the Elliott family also were in the gallery but declined to comment.
Judge Lawrence MacLeod, who ordered Young to be held without bail at his arraignment in November, heard Thursday’s arguments. He took the matter under advisement.
He didn’t give a timetable for when he would issue a ruling.
In the meantime, Young remains incarcerated.
Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.