The club had more than twice as many people as legally allowed the night Conor W. Reynolds was stabbed.
The Republican/Mark MurrayEric B. Denson
SPRINGFIELD – The owner of the Blue Fusion Bar and Grill says he grabbed the man who fatally stabbed 17-year-old Cathedral High School student Conor W. Reynolds on March 13, 2010 and physically threw him out of the club.
Despite his ejecting the man from his establishment, Tony Taylor told a judge on Tuesday that he could not identify the assailant in groups of photographs shown him by police after the incident.
Taylor, owner of the property which housed the now-defunct club on St. James Avenue, took the witness stand in Hampden Superior Court during the second day of a pre-trial hearing that will decide what witnesses will be allowed to testify at the trial of Eric B. Denson.
Denson, 22, of Springfield, has denied a murder charge for the killing of Reynolds, a Cathedral soccer standout. The stabbing occurred during an overcrowded birthday party at Blue Fusion, and Denson’s defense team is asking that identifications of the defendant by 12 people be thrown out as evidence.
Taylor said after he was shown several different groups of photos and couldn’t identify anyone, police showed him a photo taken from a surveillance video camera at the Racing Mart near the club. He told police the person in the photo wore the same hat as the assailant he threw out of the club.
“I said, ‘That’s the red cap,’” Taylor testified to Judge Peter A. Velis.
Denson’s trial is slated for Oct. 3.
Taylor said he was primarily behind the assailant as he led him to the door, picked him up and threw him on the ground outside. After he threw the assailant to the ground, the man was “looking right at me, his eyes and such,” Taylor testified.
Taylor said the man then got up and walked toward the Racing Mart convenience store.
Taylor testified that his attention then turned to Reynolds, who was walking towards him. He said he helped hold Reynolds in a standing position, telling him not to lay down.
Taylor said he also yelled to other partygoers leaving the club to pursue the attacker. “That kid with the red hat. Go get him,” he recalled, adding that he does not know if anyone chased the man.
Taylor testified that he was first asked to review more than 500 pictures on police computers but did not recognize the assailant. Denson’s picture was among that collection, police have testified.
Taylor said he also could not pick the assailant from among two, eight-person photo arrays that also included Denson, according to police.
The defense contends police use of the Racing Mart photo improperly influenced a dozen of the prosecution’s witnesses. Hampden district attorney Mark G. Mastroianni, who is prosecuting the case, argues the police acted legally and responsibly in their identification process.
The photograph outside the Racing Mart does not show the individual’s facial features, but does show a red hat and dark jacket, as well as white shoes, according to Mastroianni and defense lawyer Harry L. Miles. Mastroianni has said the individual is Denson.
In Taylor’s testimony, he said he arrived at the club about 20 minutes before the stabbing, found it to be very crowded and told the two people working security not to let anyone else in unless some people left.
More than 200 people were crowded into the club, which had a capacity set by the Fire Department of 97 people, the night of the party.
He said he was not involved with the event’s planning other than renting his club for the party given by Cathedral student Javaughn Griffin. The event was to be organized by an “entertainer-producer” whose last name he could not remember, Taylor said. No alcohol was to be served at the party.
The city ordered the club closed in the wake of the stabbing. Blue Fusion’s liquor license was canceled in 2008 for non-payment of real-estate taxes. It was rented out for Griffin’s party but no alcohol was to be served. The building is under a petition for foreclosure by the city.
Testimony continues today in the hearing.
The defense also called several police officers to testify on Tuesday about how they showed groups of photographs to witnesses.