Christian Prince

Christian Haley Prince (1972?-17 February 1991) was a Yale student whose murder in New Haven highlighted racial and class tensions between town and gown.

Prince, the son of Edward and Sally Prince of Chevy Chase, Maryland, was a fourth-generation Yale alumnus, a member of the class of 1993 in his sophomore year, in Pierson College.

Having dined at Mory's and attended a party at Sterling-Sheffield-Strathcona Hall, he left his friends behind and was going to his off-campus apartment on Whitney Avenue to rest up for lacrosse practice the next day.

He was killed on the steps of St. Mary's Church, New Haven on Hillhouse Avenue, the first Yale student killed since Gary Stein was murdered during a robbery near Grove Street Cemetery in 1974.

Yale's sense of isolation from its urban environment—the Ivy wall—came to an end. His death stunned the campus, and more than 1,000 mourners attended his funeral in Washington, D.C., where Prince's brother Ted, also a Yale graduate, gave the eulogy.

After his killing Yale reevaluated and improved its campus security. Emergency phones and improved lighting were installed; the university police department's size was expanded and a new security force was founded. In 1995 the Office of New Haven and State Affairs has served as a liaison with the city, working for cooperation on security and other measures. There was a short term significant decline in applications to Yale which was directly attributed to the murder.

In May, 1991, James Duncan Fleming was arrested for Prince's murder on a tip from one of his friends, Randy Fleming (who despite the last name was not related). Randy Fleming said that James Fleming, a 16-year-old black male, had spotted Prince walking home and demanded his money at gunpoint. Prince had handed over his wallet, whereupon Duncan Fleming pistol-whipped him, said "I ought to shoot this cracker", and killed him. Duncan Fleming dropped the wallet in his haste to get away. A year later, at James Fleming's trial, Randy Fleming recanted his original statements. The jury convicted James Fleming on conspiracy to rob Prince, acquitted him on the charge of first-degree murder, and failed to return a verdict on charges of felony murder and attempted robbery. A second jury acquitted Duncan Fleming on the latter two charges in March, 1993, and Fleming was sentenced to a nine-year prison sentence.

References

* [http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=14680 Yale Daily News article]
*"Dead Opposite: The Lives and Loss of Two American Boys", Geoffrey Douglas, Henry Holt & Co, 1994, ISBN 0-8050-2686-X