Grand Jury Indicts Three Delaware Men in Murder of Bradford’s Bryce Finn

Haverhill High grad Bryce Finn was gunned down answering the door to his Bradford home in June 2017. (WHAV News photograph)

The three Delaware men, accused in the shooting death of 18-year-old Bryce T. Finn last year, were indicted Thursday by an Essex County grand jury. Twenty-year-old Nicholas Mandato, 21-year-old Thomas Warner and 19-year-old Kenneth Pitts are charged with murdering the Bradford teen as he stood in the doorway of his Bradford home a year ago last June. Mandato and Warner are additionally charged with armed assault with intent to rob Finn. All three are held without bail.

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

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.

Finn Murder Suspects Warner, Pitts Return to Haverhill to Face Arraignment

Two Delaware men arrested in connection with the murder of Bryce Finn (whose home is seen in this WHAV News photograph from June) are due in court this week. Thomas Warner and Kenneth Pitts, the Delaware men arrested in connection with the June 2017 murder of Bradford’s Bryce Finn, have been extradited to Massachusetts ahead of an arraignment this week. Behind bars at Delaware’s Sussex Correctional Institution since their arrests, 21-year-old Warner and 18-year-old Pitts were both returned on fugitive from another state warrants on Wednesday, multiple sources tell WHAV. The men will appear in front of a Haverhill District Court judge this week for arraignment. Their return to the area comes one week after Nicholas Mandato, also from Delaware, was held without bail on a murder charge in Finn’s death.

Finn Court Docs Under Wraps to Prevent ‘Destruction of Evidence,’ Says DA

Meagan Finn, the mother of murdered Bradford teen Bryce Finn, was escorted out of Haverhill District Court after the arraignment of Nicholas Mandato. (WHAV News photograph)

Police reports and court records pertaining to the 2017 murder of Bradford’s Bryce Finn are under lock and key for fear of destruction of evidence, according to the Essex County District Attorney’s Office. As WHAV previously reported, 20-year-old Nicholas Mandato was ordered held without bail on a murder charge following his arrest by Delaware State Police. Two other men from Delaware, 21-year-old Thomas Warner and 18-year-old Kenneth Pitts were taken into custody separately. Now, WHAV can reveal that a warrant for Mandato’s arrest was issued on June 27, the same day that Assistant District Attorney Christina Ronan petitioned the state to seal all related documents—including a State Police affidavit filed to accompany Mandato’s arrest warrant.

Delaware Man Held Without Bail in 2017 Murder of Haverhill’s Bryce Finn

Meagan Finn, the mother of murdered Bradford teen Bryce Finn, left Haverhill District Court after the arraignment of Nicholas Mandato. (WHAV News photograph)

Twenty-year-old Delaware man Nicholas Mandato was ordered held without bail Thursday afternoon on a murder charge in the June 2017 shooting death of Bradford’s Bryce Finn. Waiving rendition following his arrest by Delaware State Police earlier this week, Mandato was led into Judge Mary McCabe’s Haverhill District courtroom in handcuffs. Clad in a black short-sleeve graphic T-shirt, Mandato glanced around the courtroom and briefly conferred with his attorney as the charge against him was entered. Bryce Finn’s mother, Meagan, and girlfriend Grace Murphy were among the family and friends who packed two rows of the courtroom gallery to hear prosecutor Christina Ronan petition for Mandato to be held without bail.

Finn’s Family Thanks Police Who Worked ‘Tirelessly’ to Arrest Murder Suspects

Bryce Finn’s family is thanking Haverhill Police for working “tirelessly” to arrest those connected to the teen’s 2017 shooting. (WHAV News photograph of the scene at Rainbow Drive)

Meagan Finn went through any parent’s worst nightmare on the night of June 6, 2017 when her 18-year-old son Bryce was murdered on their doorstep. This week, however, with the arrest of three Delaware men in connection with the shooting, Finn says her family is one step closer to peace—and justice. “What our family has gone through in the past year no family should ever be faced with. Our son Bryce brought happiness and love to so many lives and expected little in return,” she said in a statement released through the Essex County District Attorney’s Office Thursday, hours after news broke of the arrest of Nicholas Mandato, Thomas Warner and Kenneth Pitts.

Police Make Three Arrests in Previously Unsolved Murder of Bryce Finn

The scene in front of 54 Rainbow Drive, Tuesday, June 6, 2017. (WHAV News photograph.)

Police have made three arrests in what had been the unsolved murder of 18-year-old Bryce T. Finn 13 months ago. Twenty-year-old Nicholas Mandato, 21-year-old Thomas Warner and 18-year-old Kenneth Pitts, all of Delaware, were arrested separately, according to Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett and Haverhill Police Chief Alan R. DeNaro. Specific charges were not listed, but Mandato, of Dagsboro, Del., faces arraignment tomorrow afternoon in Haverhill District Court, sitting in Newburyport. He was arrested on a Haverhill warrant by the Delaware State Police Homicide Unit, waived rendition and returned to Massachusetts today.