Two New Haven Men Indicted By Federal Grand Jury In Connection With East Haven Armed Robbery: Feds

EAST HAVEN, CT — A federal grand jury in New Haven returned an indictment charging the two men police said robbed an East Haven business last April, prosecutors said.

The Sept. 1 grand jury indictment followed a joint investigation involving the FBI New Haven Violent Crime Gang Task Force and the East Haven, New Haven, and Hamden police departments.

Sherod Manick, 25, and Nygere Evans, 21, both of New Haven, were charged with offenses related to the East Haven armed robbery and another in Hamden earlier this year, according to US Attorney for CT David X. Sullivan and Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the FBI P.J. O’Brien.

Evans, who was arrested on a federal criminal complaint on Aug. 21, pleaded not guilty to the charges in New Haven federal court, Sullivan said. Evans has been detained since his arrest.

Manick was arrested and arraigned on Sept. 4 and is also detained.

The crimes

As alleged in court documents and statements made in court, in the early morning hours of March 16, Manick and Evans, brandishing and threatening to use firearms, robbed Dix Convenience located at 1586 Dixwell Avenue in Hamden, Sullivan said.

Manick and Evans stole approximately $600 in cash, approximately $500 in vape smoking devices, and cannabis products during the robbery and then "took a store employee’s car keys and fled the scene in his car," Sullivan said. The vehicle was later located and recovered in New Haven, he noted.

On April 3, Manick and Evans, brandishing and threatening to use firearms, robbed ZaZa City, a convenience store located at 855 Foxon Road in East Haven, the federal prosecutor said. "Manick and Evans stole approximately $4,150 in cash and several cannabis products from the store and then fled on foot," he noted.

At the time, East Haven police said they'd gotten a call from a person who "stated they had just witnessed a robbery taking place inside the business."

The witness also told police they saw two Black men dressed in all black and wearing ski masks enter the business with guns and jump over the sales counter, East Haven police spokesperson Capt. Joseph M. Murgo said at the time.

When officers got to the business, they learned that one of the suspects had an AK-47-style rifle, while the second suspect had a handgun, Murgo said. They made off with an undetermined amount of cash and fled the area toward New Haven, police said then.

The charges

The indictment charges Manick and Evans with one count of conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce by robbery, which carries a maximum of 20 years in prison; two counts of interference with interstate commerce by robbery, which carries a maximum of 20 years on each count; and two counts of carrying, using, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, an offense that carries a mandatory consecutive term of imprisonment of at least seven years, U.S. Attorney Sullivan said.