6/23/25
Here are
live updates from Day 3 of the trial:
Faison Teele, who was one of the people Valle is accused of stabbing, took the stand Monday afternoon. He is the first stabbing victim to testify in the case so far.
Teele, 20, said he was 17 years old and a student at Shelton High School when the incident occurred.
Valle’s attorney, Kevin Smith, began questioning Enrico Feola about how much drinking was at the party.
Smith asked Feola how he could be so sure he only had one beer that night, and Feola said he was an athlete and didn’t drink much at the time.
Feola said he believes McGrath was drinking at the Laurel Glen Drive house, but did not seem like he was drunk. Smith asked Feola about several attendees and whether they had been drinking, but Feola could not recall.
“You saw all these folks that night, correct?” Smith asked.
“Correct,” Feola responded.
“You just don’t recall seeing any of them drink,” Smith said.
“No, I’m not paying attention to people drinking, I could care less,” Feola said.
Smith also asked Feola about his initial interactions near the car that Valle had arrived in. Smith said Feola told the occupants to “get out” or “leave,” and asked Feola whether he wanted them to get out to get payback for their friends who had been jumped. Feola said it wasn’t for payback, but they wanted to find out why the occupants jumped their friend, but a motive was not given.
Back at Tyler Rich’s house, Enrico Feola said he was there for five minutes before going back outside after hearing that Valle and another person had returned.
Outside, Feola saw Rich and others arguing with Valle and his friend. He then heard a punch and was watching with others as Rich and Valle’s friend wrestled on the ground. Feola said he took a video of the incident, which was not saved, and was trying to show his friends when he heard someone scream, “He has a knife.”
Feola said he then saw a friend on the ground grabbing their leg as they had been stabbed, and then another friend who was wounded, and shortly after he saw McGrath collapse to the ground. Feola said he and others went to try to help McGrath, who was losing color and consciousness.
When paramedics arrived, Feola said he couldn’t bare to watch at medics performed chest compressions on McGrath.
Enrico Feola, 20, took the stand after the lunch break. He was 17 years old and a student at Shelton High School when he was invited to Tyler Rich’s house for a get-together. He said the party occurred in the basement and consisted of people talking, some drinking and music, he said. Feola said he had one beer that evening.
He testified that he had learned of the incident involving Griffin Marcinczyk and another friend at occurred at a home on Lazy Brook Road. Then, about 5 to 10 minutes after Marcinczyk and his friend arrived, Feola said a car pulled up near the home.
Feola said Rich rallied up about 10 people to go outside and confront the car. Feola said the conversation involved yelling and them telling the people in the car to leave. When the car sped off and later stopped down the road, Feola said he and at least five others went up to the vehicle in a “non-aggressive” manner, telling the occupants again that they should leave.
Later on, Feola said he approached Valle after he found out Rich had sprayed him with the WD-40. Feola told Valle that he didn’t think it was right that he was sprayed and he nor anyone present was trying to fight, but he thought they should leave.
“While I was saying this to him, he was holding a knife in his left hand,” Feola said.
Feola said Valle dismissed what he said and Feola walked away.
Kevin Smith, Valle’s attorney, focused his cross-examination of Aidan King by asking him about his drinking. King testified that he had brought beers for himself and had consumed about five to seven Bud Lights in about three hours. Smith asked if folks at the party were consuming as much, and King said not everybody, but some people.
“Did you notice other people drinking at the same rate that you were?” Smith asked.
“Yes,” King said.
Smith asked King if alcohol was being provided at the party, and King said it was not, and that there were no drinking games like beer pong being played.
Aidan King, 20, was the 11th witness to take the stand in Valle’s trial.
King was 17 years old and a student at Shelton High School when he was invited to Tyler Rich’s house. King said he had consumed between five and seven beers that night.
At the party, King learned of an incident involving Griffin Marcinczyk and another friend at Lazy Brook Road. King then recalled approaching a car with about 10 to 15 people outside the home on Laurel Glen Drive and seeing Valle and others in the car. King said people were outside the car yelling for them to leave, but King was having a conversation with Valle and a girl inside the car. He said at one point Valle threatened to smash a bottle on someone’s head if they didn’t back away from the car, King testified.
King said during his conversation, he told Valle and others to leave and then backed away toward the house.
After the car sped off and went up and down the road a few times, King said he saw the car stop down the road. He said he, Rich and others approached the car and there was more yelling and arguing. He then left and went back into Rich’s house and was planning to get a ride home from his friend who was sober.
When King went outside, he said heard yelling and screaming and people running to cars.
“At the time, it looked like there was people fighting, but I would later find out that it was done already. The fight was over and there was just my friends stabbed on the ground,” he said.
King said he saw people running toward a car that sped off. He then turned around and saw people crying, and McGrath bleeding. King recalled many people surrounding McGrath, trying to help him.
“I just kept looking around and seeing more people on the floor, more people stabbed,” he said.
Smith continued questioning Rich about details that weren’t in his initial police statements. He noted that he failed to mention to police about throwing the first punch at Valle to defend his friend or the can of WD-40. Rich said he was more focused on telling police about the fight because he had been traumatized, but later told police when he remembered more details.
Smith also asked Rich if he’d seen people stampeding forward and people getting shoved into one another, but Rich said he didn’t see that.
Smith doubled down on Rich’s recollection that he and at least two others ran up to the vehicle when it was stopped at a nearby corner. Smith then showed home surveillance footage of the incident, pointing out at least seven people heading toward the car.
Rich saw the car then stop near a corner, and he and two others ran down the street. Rich then yelled at the group to leave and threw a can of WD-40 back at the car, hitting the back, he testified.
Rich said he was walking back toward his house when someone threw the can back at him.
Smith also questioned Rich about why he didn’t call the cops about unwanted people at his property, asking whether he didn’t want to call because there had been underage drinking.
“No, the reason I didn’t call the cops was because I figured these kids were going to leave at any of the given three or four times they had the opportunity to, and I never thought in a million years that they were going to come back to my house, trespass on my property and stab four of my friends,” he said.
Valle’s attorney, Kevin Smith, began his cross-examination of Rich by asking about details that were absent in his prior police statements, such as Rich throwing the can of WD-40 and not witnessing Valle with the knife. Rich said he didn’t initially remember throwing the can of WD-40 at the Honda Pilot. Rich also said he didn’t realize he needed to clarify that he didn’t see Valle with the knife, but had heard it from a friend.
Smith noted that Rich didn’t mention the drinking in his initial statement to police, implying that he was trying to protect his friends. Rich said he was traumatized by the events and wanted to make sure to give police the key details of what had occurred in his front yard.
Rich admitted people were drinking at his party and that he had two beers. He said more people showed up than he anticipated, and he wanted to keep things under control.
Rich said that, after being given a list by police, he identified around 32 people who had been at the party.
“This wasn’t an alcohol-fueled, 70- to 100-person party,” he said. “This was just a big group of friends catching back up and we were casually drinking a few beers.”
Smith asked Rich about his friends rocking the car. Rich said he grabbed the gear shift because the driver wasn’t leaving.
“At that point, when kids started shaking the car, I knew that if they didn’t leave there that this was going to turn into something bigger,” he said.
Rich said he was getting off the ground when he heard someone yell that there was a knife. He then was approached by his friend who had been stabbed, and tied a shirt near his leg, he testified.
Rich said he hadn’t realized more people had been hurt until after he had called his father to let him know what happened. He and others then helped McGrath.
“Upon realizing how severe his wound was and having to see him struggle for his last breaths, I had to take myself away from the situation and sat on my back steps and waited for law enforcement to get there,” he testified.
Rich said he hadn’t actually seen Valle with the knife during the altercation, but had initially told police that he was flashing a knife because he had heard it from someone else.
Rich said he was back in his house for a few minutes until he heard someone yell “they were back” and in the front yard. Outside, Rich said he saw Valle and another car occupant in his yard.
Rich said he approached the occupant that needed to leave. But Rich testified that the occupant shoved him after continuing to argue with him. Rich said he saw Valle arguing with others. He testified that Valle was about to hit someone, so he proceeded to punch him in the face to defend his friend.
Rich testified Valle’s friend began punching him, and the two got into a scuffle that went to the ground.
“At that point in time, did you have any weapons on you?” Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Marc Durso asked Rich.
“Nope,” Rich responded.
“Did you notice if any of your friends had any weapons on them?”
“No,” Rich said.
“Did you notice anybody there during that interaction have any weapons on them?”
“No, I did not,” Rich said.
Rich described the fight as “very quick” and “chaotic.” He said the fight came to an end when Valle’s friend was pushed off Rich and into the street.
A friend then approached Rich, saying he was bleeding and needed stitches because he had just been stabbed, Rich testified.
Tyler Rich said he was 18 years old and a senior at Shelton High School when he threw a party at his home on Laurel Glen Drive on May 14, 2022.
Rich, now 21, testified that the party began with a few friends at his house and, as time went on, more people came over. At his house, the group, about 30 people, was hanging out in the basement and drinking beer. He called the party “nothing crazy.”
Rich said two people, including Marcinczyk, had arrived at his house and said they had been jumped. Rich said they could hang out at the house until they needed a ride, but said they could not stay.
Rich learned that a Honda Pilot SUV containing Valle pulled up to his house. He said he approached the car and spoke to the front passenger, whom he knew, and said he didn’t know why they were there and that they needed to leave. Rich said he had no prior knowledge that the group was coming to his house that night.
About 15 to 20 people surrounded the car, Rich said. He then noticed an argument occurring on the other side of the car and at some point saw what he believed to be a glass bottle thrown from the back driver’s side window.
Rich said his friends began “yelling things and rocking the car.”
Rich, saying he was noticing things getting “chippy,” went to the driver’s side, and said they needed to leave. Rich said he then reached in the car toward the gear shift, telling the driver to “Put your car in drive and leave now.” The driver rolled up his window, and the car sped up the street while occupants threw cans out of the window at parked cars, he testified.
Rich said he thought the car had left.
Tyler Rich, 21, who hosted the party on Laurel Glen Drive in Shelton where McGrath was killed, took the stand first Monday morning.
Over the first two days of the trial last week, the 12-person jury heard from
emergency medical personnel and police investigating the incident, as well as the state’s chief medical examiner, Dr. James Gill. Gill testified last week that McGrath died from a stab wound to his chest, which struck his heart, and ruled his death a homicide.
Jurors also heard from
two people who were at the home on Laurel Glen Drive the night the deadly fight — Griffin Marcinczyk, 19, and Tanner Chernowsky, 21.
TRIAL DAY 3, CT Insider Live Blog 
www.fox61.com
youtube.com
www.fox61.com
