Emanuel Webb

Case record: Emanuel Lovell Webb

The offence

Emanuel Lovell Webb was sentenced in Connecticut for the strangling deaths of three women in Bridgeport. The crimes were described as having sexual aspects and involving disfigurement or mutilation.

The three victims were:

• Sharon Cunningham, 39
• Minnie Sutton, 37
• Elizabeth Gandy, 34

Police said one of the victims was stabbed in the neck, chest, forehead and stomach.

Investigators also said DNA tests linked Webb to the killing of a fourth woman, Sheila Etheridge, 29, but charges in that case were dropped.

Authorities said Webb was connected to other killings in the early 1990s in Bridgeport. Investigators believed he may have been involved in up to six other slayings, and police said he could be responsible for as many as 10 murders of young women.

Investigation

Cold-case investigation and DNA testing linked Webb to killings in Bridgeport using DNA evidence. Detectives reinvestigated homicides of about 15 Bridgeport women from the late 1980s into the early 1990s.

Bridgeport police sent evidence from four cases to the FBI for comparison using the Combined DNA Identification System (CODIS). The DNA technology and nationwide profiles were not available in the early 1990s.

Police said CODIS recorded DNA “hits” for Webb in the killings of Elizabeth Gandy, Sharon Cunningham, Minnie Sutton and Sheila Etheridge.

Police said:

• Sperm had been located at the murder scenes of Cunningham and Etheridge.
• A cigarette butt was found at Sutton’s murder scene.
• Gandy had skin under her fingernails from scratching her killer.

In addition, witnesses and investigators testified about patterns and similarities across the murders. Retired FBI Special Agent Gregg McCrary, formerly with the FBI’s Behavior Analysis Unit, testified he believed the four murders were committed by the same person and described shared characteristics. McCrary testified that all the victims were drug users, they were in the same social group in the city’s East Side, there were “sexual components” in each of the crimes, each victim was disfigured by her killer, and Webb’s DNA was found at each crime scene. McCrary also cited “striking similarities” between the murders of the four women and the July 10, 1994, murder of 37-year-old Evelyn Charity, found strangled and stabbed in her Vidalia, Ga., home.

Arrest and custody

Webb was already in custody in Georgia when investigators charged him in Connecticut.

Bridgeport police charged Emanuel Lovell Webb with murder while he was at the D. Ray James Correctional Facility in Folkston, Georgia, where he was being held on a parole violation.

Background and personal details

Emanuel Lovell Webb was born in Vidalia, Ga., on April 9, 1966.

His family later moved to Mount Vernon, Ga. In 1969, his father, Shade Webb, a disabled Navy veteran, died of pneumonia.

After graduating from high school, Webb moved to Bridgeport, where he lived with his sister.

In Bridgeport, Webb held jobs with Bur-Don Security of Fairfield and J&B Construction of Bridgeport.

Between 1987 and August 1993, Webb lived with his sister, Bernice Snead, and a girlfriend in the East End of Bridgeport.

In 1986, Webb started a relationship with Jadee Hanson; they had two children. They lived on Smith Street and later Carroll Avenue.

In August 1993, Webb and his family moved back to Mount Vernon, Georgia.

Police said Webb worked for a Fairfield security company before moving to Mount Vernon, Ga., in 1993. Police also said Webb worked for a construction company prior to the move.

Police said Webb frequented the same clubs as the victims.

In Georgia, Webb was arrested in July 1994 for the murder of Evelyn Charity, who was sexually assaulted and strangled, according to Georgia court records.

Trial and plea

Webb pleaded no contest last month to murder charges in the stranglings of Sharon Cunningham, Minnie Sutton and Elizabeth Gandy.

A no contest plea was described as not contesting the charges, while the state made a finding of guilty.

A state judge ruled the prosecutors could consolidate the Cunningham, Sutton and Gandy cases into one trial. The judge ruled that prosecutors had not proved sufficiently that a fourth woman, Sheila Etheridge, 29, died at Webb’s hands or that her death could be linked to the three other cases.

The decision set a continuance for Webb’s lawyers until June 2 for jury selection. The trial was set to begin July 17.

Webb did not face capital felony, which would have made him eligible for the death penalty or life without the possibility of parole, because his crimes did not fit the definition under the law. Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph Corradino said the law required additional elements to a killing, such as rape or kidnapping, and that there was a “gap” in the capital felony statute without the possibility of life without release.

Verbatim quotations from the court and attorneys:

“Justice may have been delayed, but it was never denied,” Gandy’s daughter, Tequea Gandy, exclaimed as she left the courthouse.

“My heart goes out to all of you,” he told the families. “There are lots of things I don’t agree with.”

“He was motivated by his lust for killing,” Joseph Corradino told the judge. “This case shouts for the maximum sentence.”

“I was robbed of a mother, my son was robbed of a grandmother and if he is released from prison no one will be safe from this sick man,” Tequea Gandy said.

“I just don’t see how you can get a fair trial,” Webb’s public defender Miles Gerety said.

“I want him to suffer...so he can think about all the pain he caused people,” Tequea Gandy said.

“It destroyed my life,” Tequea Gandy said.

“He was motivated by his lust for killing,” Joseph Corradino said.

“It’s a gap in the capital felony statute,” Joseph Corradino said. “There’s not even the possibility of life without release.”

“My mother is 80 years old and lives with him in Georgia; get the hell off my phone,” Bernice Snead said.

Verbatim quotations from officials and expert testimony:

McCrary said: “sexual components” in each of the crimes.

Sentencing

On June 23, 2008, Bridgeport Superior Court Judge George Thim announced a sentence of 60 years in prison for the strangling deaths of three women.

Outcome

Webb received a Connecticut prison sentence of 60 years on June 23, 2008 for the strangling deaths of:

• Sharon Cunningham
• Minnie Sutton
• Elizabeth Gandy

Investigators linked Webb to the killing of Sheila Etheridge, but charges in that case were dropped.

Other details

Judge Robert Devlin Jr. issued a 16-page decision on May 12, 2008 regarding consolidation and the evidence for Sheila Etheridge.

During the reinvestigation, Bridgeport detectives identified a laceration to Webb’s right middle finger. Teixeira said a hunch made investigators check old records at Bridgeport Hospital showing that the day after Gandy’s murder, Webb had gone to the hospital to be treated for a laceration to his right middle finger.

Police Lt. James Viadero said:

“Detectives Teixeira and Sherback did a great work on this investigation,” said Police Lt. James Viadero. “I know they feel satisfaction to be able to close a case this old and to bring closure to the victims.”

Additional named legal personnel included Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph Corradino, Assistant State’s Attorney Marc Durso, Assistant Public Defenders Miles Gerety and Susan Coccia, and Associate State Medical Examiner Dr. Edward McDonough.

Cunningham’s body was found shortly after noon April 1, 1990, in a burning car at Crescent and Bunnell streets.

Sutton was found lying partially clothed on the floor of her Webster Avenue home on March 28, 1992.

Gandy’s partially clothed body was found April 19, 1993, in an abandoned building at Stratford Avenue and Fifth Street.

Etheridge was found dead in her Bishop Avenue apartment on June 28, 1993.

The judge ruled that prosecutors could present information about Charity’s killing during Webb’s trial on the Bridgeport charges.

In Georgia, Webb pleaded guilty to lesser charges of involuntary manslaughter, robbery and theft of a motor vehicle and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Webb was released on parole on Dec. 18, 2001.

Joseph Corradino said Webb had been convicted in Georgia after contending Charity died during “wild sex.”

Police said Webb worked for a Fairfield security company before moving to Mount Vernon, Ga., in 1993, and police said he later moved there with his family in August 1993.

Timeline

• April 1, 1990 — Sharon Cunningham’s body was found shortly after noon in a burning car at Crescent and Bunnell streets.
• March 28, 1992 — Minnie Sutton was found lying partially clothed on the floor of her Webster Avenue home.
• April 19, 1993 — Elizabeth Gandy’s partially clothed body was found in an abandoned building at Stratford Avenue and Fifth Street.
• June 28, 1993 — Sheila Etheridge was found dead in her Bishop Avenue apartment.
• August 1993 — Webb moved back to Mount Vernon, Ga.
• July 1994 — Webb was arrested in Georgia for the murder of Evelyn Charity.
• July 10, 1994 — Evelyn Charity was found strangled and stabbed in her Vidalia, Ga., home.
• Dec. 18, 2001 — Webb was released on parole.
• June 7, 2006 — DNA testing linked Webb to the killings in the early 1990s.
• May 12, 2008 — A judge ruled the state could consolidate the three strangling charges into one trial.
• May 31, 2008 — Webb pleaded no contest to murder charges in the strangling deaths of three women.
• June 23, 2008 — Judge George Thim announced a sentence of 60 years in prison.