A jury has reached a deadlock in the murder trial involving a high school lacrosse player from Fairfield, Connecticut, who was killed amid a drunken brawl at a student house party in May 2022, which has been deemed favorable for the defense, according to one specialist.

Raul Valle, now 20, is awaiting the jury’s decision after he allegedly fatally stabbed 17-year-old James “Jimmy” McGrath, a Fairfield College Preparatory School athlete, at the house gathering.

Valle was charged with one count of murder and two counts of first-degree assault. He was 16 at the time of McGrath’s stabbing death. 

Split image of Jimmy McGrath, a Fairfield Prep student who was stabbed to death in 2022. (Fairfield College Preparatory School)

Valle attended St. Joseph High School in Trumbull near Fairfield Prep, where McGrath was a junior. 

At the party in Shelton, Connecticut, Valle reported that he saw his best friend Tyler DaSilva, also attending St. Joseph High School, being assaulted by students from another school, prompting him to intervene in the fight to defend his friend.

He reportedly insisted during his testimony that he did not know he was going to the Shelton house party until he arrived, and that on the ride over, his friend and driver Jack Snyder gave him the knife used in the stabbing. 

Snyder testified that he gave Valle the knife when Valle asked for it, FOX 61 reported.

Tyler DaSilva, a former St. Joseph High School student, points to Raul Valle as he is asked to identify the defendant as he testifies on the seventh day of Valle’s murder trial in state Superior Court, in Milford, Conn. June 27, 2025.  (Ned Gerard/Connecticut Post via Getty Images)

In 2023, Valle declined a plea deal that would have resulted in a 40-year prison sentence.