Hartford man accused of killing cousin in 2018 over drug deal captured at Miami airport, charged with murder

A Hartford man wanted for his cousin’s 2018 murder was captured earlier this month by federal agents at a Miami airport after more than three years on the lam.

Vincent Jonathan Etwaroo, 27, was arrested by U.S. Marshals on Sept. 3 and extradited to Connecticut last week to be charged with murder, police said.

Etwaroo had been at large since the Aug. 20, 2018, murder of his 28-year-old cousin Randolph Paidama in an apparent drug deal gone wrong in Hartford’s North End.

But new court records reveal the cousins were selling marijuana together and that their drug deal fell apart before they ever met their buyer when Etwaroo turned on Paidama with a handgun during an argument over how much they would charge for the drugs.

“You gonna do me like that?” Paidama asked his cousin, according to another family member who witnessed the entire encounter.

Etwaroo opened fire and the car he was driving was captured on nearby security camera video speeding away from the scene where Paidama was found, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Etwaroo even came to Hartford police headquarters for an interview shortly after the incident and admitted to being present at the time of the shooting but denied any involvement.

Asked why he didn’t contact police about his cousin’s death, Etwaroo claimed “did not know what to tell them anyway,” according to the affidavit.

Just 48 hours later, however, the family member who witnessed the entire incident met with detectives and their attorney to share the full story — the account of the incident Etwaroo had asked this family member to lie about and cover up, records show.

This family member told police they had been hanging out with Etwaroo and Paidama all day when Etwaroo essentially brokered a sale of Paidama’s marijuana that was supposed to take place on Garden Street early the morning of Aug. 20, according to the affidavit.

The cousins began to argue in the car on the way to the deal, however, with Paidama arguing Etwaroo was being “too greedy” about how much to charge, the witness reported. Paidama reportedly told Etwaroo he would “cut Jonathan off” and not help with his drug deals anymore and the argument escalated further.

When the men arrived on Garden Street, all three exited the car and the family member saw Etwaroo brandish a handgun before Paidama asked Etwaroo if he would really shoot him, according to the family member’s account.

Etwaroo fired at Paidama multiple times before he and the family member fled in the Acura TL they all had arrived in, records say. Police located the car the next day in Etwaroo’s parents’ garage, “hastily” parked on top of several small items, and officers later found a live round matching the bullets that killed Paidama inside the front passenger area, records show.

Police made numerous attempts to find Etwaroo in the months that followed to no avail. Detectives finally obtained an arrest warrant to charge Etwaroo with murder early this summer and involved the U.S. Marshals, who eventually found Etwaroo in Florida and took him into custody at the Miami airport less than two weeks ago.

Etwaroo remains in custody in lieu of $900,000 bond and is scheduled to appear before a judge again on Oct. 6 in the Hartford Judicial District.

Zach Murdock can be reached at zmurdock@courant.com.