State v. Paradise

This case marks the third time that the state’s proceedings against Wilmer Paradise, in relation to the 1974 murder of Jay Cunningham, have resulted in an appeal before this court. As this court noted in the second appeal, State v. Ellis, 197 Conn. 436, 438-39, 497 A.2d 974 (1985), in May, 1974, the body of seventeen year old Jay Cunningham was found in a wooded area of Enfield. The chief medical examiner classified Cunningham’s death as a homicide resulting from multiple stab wounds. More than seven years later, in December, 1981, Wilmer Paradise and Brian Ellis were arrested and charged…