Man faces 8 years for crimes including assault at East Hartford club
Dec. 6—A former East Hartford man is likely to get eight years in prison for assaulting a former girlfriend when he saw her with another man at a Burnside Avenue nightclub last year, violating probation conditions in a serious 2014 assault in East Hartford, and illegally possessing a gun in Hartford.
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DEFENDANT: Devin Isaiah Texira, 26, formerly of East Hartford, who most recently listed a Hartford address
CONVICTIONS: Second-degree assault, criminal possession of a firearm, violating probation conditions
LIKELY SENTENCE: Eight years in prison, followed by two years of special parole
Devin Isaiah Texira, 26, who most recently listed a Hartford address, accepted a plea bargain Monday in Hartford Superior Court calling for him to receive the eight-year prison term followed by two years of strict special parole. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 6.
Texira has been held in lieu of more than $300,000 bond since his March 27 arrest in the Hartford gun case, records show.
He has also been ordered held without bond in a federal case in which he is charged with illegally possessing a gun after being convicted of felonies. That charge stems from an incident on Oct. 1, 2021, according to the federal indictment.
The state gun conviction also involves possessing a gun after felony convictions but stems from the incident this March.
Prosecutor Richard Rubino said in court that the March arrest stemmed from a breach of peace incident involving a gun on Arch Street in Hartford. Police chased Texira, apprehended him, and found a loaded, 9mm semi-automatic gun in the area, the prosecutor said.
Texira admitted in court Monday that he was guilty of the gun crime.
The federal indictment charges Texira with possessing another 9mm pistol in the October 2021 incident. That case involves multiple defendants, most charged with drug offenses. But Texira is named only in a single count relating to the gun possession.
As part of Monday's plea bargain, Texira accepted a conviction of second-degree assault in the incident at the Burnside Avenue nightclub on July 11, 2021. He didn't admit he was guilty of that crime, entering his plea under the Alford Doctrine, which required him to admit only that the prosecution's evidence was sufficient for a conviction at trial.
The prosecutor said Texira punched the woman in the face after seeing her with another man at the nightclub.
Texira admitted violating probation conditions in a case in which he was convicted of second-degree robbery and conspiracy to commit second-degree assault in an attack on a fellow Synergy Alternative High School student at a Burnside Avenue laundromat on Sept. 28, 2014.
The victim's jaw was broken in two places.
Texira was one of three defendants convicted in that incident. He could have faced up to four years in prison but got a 21-month sentence after a state Department of Children and Families social worker vouched for his character. He also wasn't believed to have played the most violent role in the attack.
Texira has, however, violated probation conditions twice in that case. In 2016, he got a four-year prison sentence in a plea bargain that included the first probation violation in the 2014 assault as well as two new crimes — criminal possession of a firearm and second-degree threatening. The new convictions stemmed from in a June 2016 incident in which Texira brandished a gun during a confrontation with his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend at the man's Naugatuck home.
For updates on Glastonbury, and recent crime and courts coverage in North-Central Connecticut, follow Alex Wood on Twitter: @AlexWoodJI1, Facebook: Alex Wood, and Instagram: @AlexWoodJI.
