Murdered Bradford Teen Was Intended Robbery Victim, According to Newly Revealed Information

Bryce T. Finn was shot in the chest after answering the door at his Bradford home (pictured) in June 2017. (WHAV News file photograph.)

Police tape surrounds the Finn household during the rainy night of Tuesday, June 6, 2017. (WHAV News photograph.)

Eighteen-year-old Bryce T. Finn was an intended robbery target when he was gunned down and killed in the doorway of his Bradford home last year, according to new information released Friday.

At the arraignment of two of three men charged with the shooting, Essex County Assistant District Attorney Christina Ronan said the three men traveled from Delaware to Haverhill with the intention of robbing Finn at his home. Finn was shot in the chest while opening the front door of his 54 Rainbow Drive home.

Thomas J. Warner, 21 of Selbyville, Del., and Kenneth J. Pitts, 18, of Frankford, Del., pleaded not guilty during a bail hearing Friday afternoon in Haverhill District Court, sitting in Newburyport. Judge Mary McCabe ordered them held without bail. As WHAV reported earlier, Warner and Pitts returned to Massachusetts Thursday morning after being arrested last week in Delaware. A third man charged with murder, 20-year-old Nicholas Mandato, of Dagsboro, Del., was ordered held without bail July 12.

Information about the attempted robbery has been sealed by the court since Ronan’s June 27 request. It is not yet clear whether or how a burglary at Finn’s home four days after his death is related.

As WHAV first reported at the time, a Haverhill Police incident report listed a “breaking and entering” at the single-family home during the afternoon of Saturday, June 10. The Police Department’s Records Division said details of the house break cannot be released while the murder investigation continues.

“We’re aware of it. I can’t say anything further about whether its connected or not. It is under investigation,” Carrie Kimball-Monahan, spokeswoman for Essex County District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett, told WHAV at the time.

Ronan asked for police reports to be kept under wraps, saying in a court motion that any release of information “may further impair law enforcement officials’ ability to assess the veracity of any tips they might receive.”

Pitts was represented by attorney Steve Weymouth, while Warner was represented by attorney Jim Krasnoo. All three were arrested by the Delaware State Police Homicide Unit June 27 on a warrant out of Haverhill District Court.