Making a push to help bring justice for the families of cold case murder victims. A state senator says he’s proposing legislation that would help solve these cases saying the families deserve answers while also helping local police.
“It hangs over you. There's no closure.”
Closure is what James Stone and others in his family are still searching for several years after his son, Jimmy Stone, was found shot and killed in a trailer on the Golden Hill Paugusett Reservation in Colchester in May of 2018. His murder still remains unsolved.
“It's still a big impact. It doesn't go away,” Stone said.
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It’s an impact Senator Herron Keyon Gaston (D-Bridgeport) has seen firsthand, talking with constituents in Bridgeport and Stratford.
“Time and time again when I go knock on doors, I meet a grieving mother who said that I lost my son, or I lost my loved one or my cousin to street violence and these cases have never been solved,” Senator Gaston said.
He’s now crafting legislation aimed at helping solve those cases. It would include using state and federal funding to let local police departments, hire retired homicide investigators to focus on cold cases.
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“Oftentimes, those folks who are retired investigators, they've been on the force for a long time. They bring a lot of sophistication to that process,” he said.
Stone believes it’s an excellent idea.
“In terms of actually working the case to get another set of eyes on it, look at it from another perspective, I think it's very helpful,” he said.
Senator Gaston says the legislation is all about holding perpetrators accountable.
“If you break the law, then the pursuit of justice should not have an expiration date or timeframe,” he said.
A timeframe Stone hopes will mean a tip or development that breaks open and solves his son’s murder.
“My hope is, is that I won't be dead before they find my son's killer, because I want to look them in the eye and see what they have to say,” he said. A $50,000 reward is still on the table for any information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the murder of Jimmy Stone. Meanwhile, Senator Gaston hopes to bring up this piece of legislation during the next general assembly session.
