Charges consolidated against Concord shooting defendant

By ALYSSA DANDREA

Monitor staff

Published: 02-24-2020 11:51 AM

Jurors chosen to hear the evidence in an attempted murder case against a Concord man will also learn that he sought from jail to persuade two key witnesses to falsely identify the shooter so he would be acquitted.

Attorneys on both sides recently agreed to join two related criminal cases pending against 18-year-old Devon Gilligan in Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord. He is now expected to stand trial later this year on a total of seven charges.

Gilligan was charged nearly one year ago with attempted murder, first-degree assault, armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery in connection with a November 2018 incident outside the Penacook Place Apartments. Since then, a grand jury has also indicted him on two counts of witness tampering, accusing him of asking another inmate to deliver letters to co-defendant Chea Chebo and the victim, Devyn Bowe Iriana, asking them to lie and say the shooter was “Nick.”

Nicholaus Castillo was with Chebo and Gilligan on the night of Nov. 24, 2018, outside the apartment complex where Iriana was shot. Castillo, 20, previously of Hooksett, was recently sentenced as part of a plea agreement on a charge of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and was sentenced to one year in jail. Prosecutors allege Gilligan and not Castillo was the ringleader.

According to court documents, Gilligan met at his house at 19 Woodbine Ave. in Concord with Castillo on the evening of Nov. 23, 2018, the same night Gilligan came to be in possession of the firearm used in the shooting. Police said Gilligan initially had no specific target in mind; rather, he posted a photo of fake bills in a group message on the social media application Snapchat to initiate a marijuana deal. Iriana became the target after he responded and agreed to meet Gilligan hours later.

Iriana arrived at Penacook Place on Nov. 24, 2018, shortly before 1:30 a.m. He later told police that when he drove around the back of the apartment complex, he saw three men approach his vehicle, including two of whom appeared from the tree line. After Gilligan got in the passenger seat, Iriana sped off, believing he was the target of a robbery.

Inside the car, Gilligan displayed a handgun and demanded that Iriana empty his pockets, according to a police affidavit. Iriana refused and told Gilligan to get out of the car, and that is when Gilligan stepped outside and quickly fired off six rounds, causing the car’s back windshield to shatter, police allege.

Iriana suffered a gunshot wound to his left shoulder and a graze mark on his right arm. Police said they found bullet holes in the car headrest directly behind where he was seated.

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Gilligan, Chebo and Castillo were arrested in March 2019 following a multi-month investigation by police.

Seven months later, corrections officers at the Merrimack County jail in Boscawen reported finding two handwritten letters in an inmate’s cell written by Gilligan and addressed to Chebo and Iriana. The inmate said Gilligan had given him the letters with the expectation that when he was released he would get the letters to both witnesses, according to court documents. Gilligan asks that both Chebo and Iriana testify that Castillo was the shooter on the night of Nov. 24, 2018.

Gilligan remains incarcerated pending his trial. Jury selection is scheduled for Sept. 22 in Concord.

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