On a summer evening in Hartford, Connecticut, the life of 19-year-old Cameron Mounds Jr., a Black male, was tragically cut short. On June 21, 2016, Mounds was fatally shot on Enfield Street, near the intersection with Greenfield Street. The violence of that evening was not limited to him; it was a double homicide that also claimed the life of 21-year-old Ashley Spence.
A third individual, 39-year-old Harold Cook, was also wounded in the shooting but survived his injuries.
The incident unfolded around 7:22 p.m., when the city's shot-spotter system detected two separate volleys of four gunshots each. When Hartford police arrived at the scene, they found a chaotic and tragic situation. Mounds was discovered with a gunshot wound to the chest and was pronounced dead at the scene. Spence had been shot multiple times in the torso and was rushed to St. Francis Hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries.
For more than three years, the case remained a priority for Hartford detectives. Early in the investigation, a person of interest was identified, but it took a significant amount of time to gather the necessary evidence and witness accounts to formally press charges. The breakthrough came in December 2019 when police arrested Brandon Letman of New Britain in connection with the double homicide. Investigators later revealed that they believed Spence was not the intended target of the shooting.
In May 2024, a Superior Court jury found Brandon Letman, then 31, guilty of two counts of murder, one count of murder with special circumstances, criminal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and three counts of tampering with a witness. The conviction was the result of a lengthy investigation involving the Hartford police, the Cold Case Unit of the Office of the Chief State's Attorney, the Hartford State's Attorney's office, and the state Department of Correction. Subsequently, Letman was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of Cameron Mounds Jr. and Ashley Spence, with an additional ten years to be served consecutively for the charges of tampering with a witness.
