The trial of a 25-year-old Lebanon man accused in a drive-by shooting in downtown Hanover is likely to be pushed back to November, lawyers involved in the case said on Wednesday.
At the start of what had been billed as a final pretrial hearing for defendant Gage Young, Grafton Superior Court Judge Lawrence MacLeod Jr. noted that a motion to consolidate Young’s case with that of Hector Correa, who was 17 at the time of the shooting in November 2018 but has recently been charged as an adult, had yet to be ruled on.
“I do think that is the most important issue,” Assistant Grafton County Attorney Mariana Pastore responded.
After MacLeod asked, “So let me ask, are you folks ready for a trial?” the attorneys in the case huddled with the judge for the remaining 12 minutes of the hearing, out of earshot of the public in the courtroom, including Young’s parents.
Both Young and Correa are charged with first-degree assault with a firearm, second-degree assault with a firearm and reckless conduct with a deadly weapon in the Nov. 2, 2018, shooting of Thomas Elliott, a Providence College student who was walking with friends on School Street. Elliott was struck in the back but recovered.
Jury selection was to start next week, with a trial in mid-October, but after the hearing both Richard Guerriero Jr., Young’s attorney, and Grafton County Attorney Marcie Hornick said the trial was expected to be pushed back.
“We have a large number of outstanding motions that need to be resolved before the trial, and the parties agreed that those need to be addressed and that we don’t have enough time to do that before the current trial date, so the trial is going to be rescheduled, most likely for November,” Guerriero said.
Among the pending motions is an attempt by prosecutors to introduce text messages between Young and Correa in the hours before Elliott was shot. In one text, Correa says he is upset because his mother had told him “my lil cousin got popped …really crazy if my lil cousin die ima loose my mind.” Pastore asserted that the text is “probative of his state of mind earlier in the evening prior to the shooting.”
Although Correa initially told police that Young shot Elliott, Young’s attorneys have disputed that and said Correa’s statements have been inconsistent.