On the evening of January 5, 2016, a tragedy unfolded in a basement on Broad Street in Hartford, Connecticut, that would cut short the life of 18-year-old Nasashalie Hoy. Emergency responders were called to the residence, where they found the young, White/Caucasian female with a gunshot wound to her neck. Rushed to Hartford Hospital, she was pronounced dead shortly before midnight.
The initial report to police by a male witness at the scene, 21-year-old Torrick Maragh, claimed that Hoy had taken her own life.
This initial account of suicide, however, soon gave way to a darker narrative. As Hartford police detectives investigated the scene, they discovered two sawed-off shotguns. This discovery, coupled with other forensic evidence, led to Maragh's immediate arrest on two counts of possession of a sawed-off shotgun. The narrative shifted decisively when the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner conducted an autopsy and ruled Hoy's death a homicide, not a suicide. Investigators were told that Maragh claimed Hoy had shot herself with his 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun following an argument that escalated into a physical altercation.
With the medical examiner's ruling, the investigation intensified. In April 2016, the Major Crimes Division secured an arrest warrant for Maragh, charging him with one count of murder. Maragh, who had remained incarcerated on the weapons charges, was served with the murder warrant. He subsequently pleaded not guilty to the charge of killing Hoy. The case proceeded through the court system, and in January 2019, a Hartford jury reached a verdict. Torrick Maragh was acquitted of the murder charge in connection with Nasashalie Hoy's death. However, he was convicted of illegal possession of a sawed-off shotgun and was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for the firearm offense.
