Articles Posted in Murder

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If you heard a cacophony of crashing noises yesterday from the direction of Boston’s Beacon Hill, it was the sound of Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick , along with a certain Parole Board, caving in to public ridicule and political pressure.

As you have heard time and time again, the now-infamous Massachusetts Parole Board released a repeat violent offender in 2008. Of course, it was not the first time that this has happened. However, this time, said offender , in 2010, was involved in a robbery to which the late police officer John Maguire responded. There was a gunfight and the officer, as well as the offender, were killed. Since that time, amongst various reports of unexplained police shootings of suspects and non-suspects, a state-wide hand-wringing has been occurring.

Naturally, in 2011, tragedy must be someone’s fault. Someone living’s fault. Thus, it was the Parole Board’s fault.

At first, Governor Patrick had the gall to be a leader and indicate before rushing to judgment and demanding the Parole Board’s heads on a stick, that perhaps we should concentrate on the victims, then gather all the evidence and then decide fault.

Well, so much for that kind of nonsense.
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Just last week, we discussed the case of kids threatening to commit mass murder online. I mentioned that this was not the climate for it. This was illustrated horribly this past weekend in Tucson, Arizona. The end result of the event is that Federal prosecutors have brought charges against the alleged gunman accused of attempting to assassinate Representative. Gabrielle Giffords and, in the process, killing six people, ages ranging from a 9-year-old-child to an elderly woman.

Jared Lee Loughner, 22, (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) is the man accused of the shootings. He is said to have also fired at Giffords’ district director and others s standing in line to talk to the congresswoman,

“He was not more than three or four feet from the congresswoman and the district director,” said Mark Kimble, a communications staffer for Giffords. He went on to describe the scene as “just complete chaos, people screaming, crying.”

It is believed that the Defendant acted alone. Investigators said they carried out a search warrant at the Defendant’s home and seized an envelope from a safe with messages such as “I planned ahead,” “My assassination” and the name “Giffords” next to what appears to be the Defendant’s signature.
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Well, if this past New Years Eve in Lowell and Lynn are any indication, we are in for another angry and violent year. Both Massachusetts towns were scenes of armed assaults, one of them fatal.

Yesterday, Jameson Phoun, 20 , and Sothy Voeun, 19, both of Lowell, (hereinafter, the “Defendants”) were arraigned n Lowell District Court on charges of, among other things, first-degree murder. They were held without bail, as istypical in such cases.

The Defendants are charged with having burst into a party where they had been asked to leave and shooting up a room filled with 25 party-goers. Thus far, one homicide has resulted.

According to the prosecution, said shooting was meant to “scare” the celebrants.

“I don’t characterize this as a gang issue so much as a violence issue amongst young people who are willing to carry weapons and utilize them to resolve conflict,” Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. said, standing outside the courtroom moments after the arraignment. “I would certainly refer to it as brazen. I would certainly refer to it as lawless. I would refer to it as tragic and troubling, as well.”

One 20-year-old woman died in the Lowell assault. Seven others were wounded, including two who were shot in the head. The condition other shooting victims is said to be “day to day”. “Everyone is in various stages of stable condition, and we’re hopeful that they’ll continue to get better as the days go on.”

It was a bloody New Year’s Eve in Lynn as well. There, a 55-year-old woman was hit in the chest by a stray bullet fired from a gun outside her home.
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The more serious the crime, the more desperate the prosecution becomes to predict the defense’s strategy. It is the one area in which the defense has a bit of an advantage. In a very public homicide case, outside of Massachusetts, case, prosecutors seem to be floating “trial balloons” to force the defense to reveal its thoughts.

Dr. Conrad Murray (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) has been charged with the homicide of Michael Jackson. As you will recall, Mr. Jackson died at age 50 on June 25, 2009, of an overdose of prescription drugs, primarily the powerful anesthetic propofol which can be used in surgery. Other drugs in Jackson’s system included lorazepam, known under the brand names Ativan and Temesta, and diazepam, the generic version of Valium. It is alleged that the fatal dose was prescribed by the Defendant. The Defendant has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Last week, In a court session to discuss evidence in the case against the Defendant, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney David Walgren announced that he believes it is clear that defense attorneys are planning to claim that Mr. Jackson actually committed suicide.

When questioned about the prosecutor’s proclamation, defense counsel, J. Michael Flanagan, merely stated, “I’m not going to respond to that characterization. But apparently it is a consideration of Mr. Walgren,”

The Defendant hired as Jackson’s physician while the singer prepared for a series of concerts that would have begun in July 2009, has admitted giving Jackson propofol to help him sleep. But the Defendant has pleaded not guilty to the charge of involuntary manslaughter.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled to begin tomorrow. At the hearing, the court is to decide if there is enough evidence against Murray to proceed to a full trial.

There will be.

Representatives for the prosecution and defense have predicted that they expect the preliminary hearing to begin as planned and take roughly two weeks to complete.

From The Trenches

As a former homicide prosecutor and experienced criminal defense attorney I have witnessed many cases in which the chosen defense is to blame the victim.

It seldom works.
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2010 is ending with a tragedy which many people believe could have, and should have, been averted. I am talking about the recent homicide of Woburn police officer John Maguire as he tried to apprehend robbery suspects during Sunday’s blizzard. The accused killer, Dominic Dinelli , 57, (hereinafter, the “Parolee”), is also dead, by the way. Massachusetts is in an uproar pointing the finger of blame at the Parole Board which paroled the Parolee in 2008.

In fact, let’s be clear. The Board did fail to follow the applicable law which mandates that the prosecutors who put the Parolee away 20 years earlier be notified of the hearing.

Does this really mean that, had the Board notified the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, the Parolee would not have been released? If so, would the prosecutor’s intervention have been warranted?

There is no reason to believe that the prosecutors had any more knowledge about the Parolee than the Board already did. After all, the Parolee had been incarcerated for 20 years. There was no secret about his background before then. He had an almost life-long history of violent crime. This is why he was serving the sentences he was serving in the first place.

One goal of incarceration about which we like to forget is rehabilitation. Often, there is little such rehabilitation to be observed. In this case, however, the Board voted to free the Parolee in a 6 – 0 vote. During the hearing, board members praised the Parolee for evolving from a drug-addled menace of the prison system to a model prisoner who spoke to other addicts about recovery.
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20-year-old Darryene Ware, a Brockton resident, was arraigned on Thursday for Massachusetts murder. He is accused of fatally shooting 16-year-old Chantel Matiyosus as she was leaving a baby shower in 2008. According to police. Ware and a number of other people who call themselves “D Block” started shooting at the partygoers.

He was reportedly at odds with one of the shower attendees. Prosecutors say that Ware was aiming at Matiyosus’s boyfriend and that, according to a witness, prior to the shooting Ware organized a meeting to plan the assault. Matiyosus, who sustained bullet wounds to the abdomen and head, was pronounced dead at Brockton hospital. Another victim, a male, sustained a leg injury, while another female, age 14, was shot in the wrist.

Ware has been ordered held without bail. He has prior convictions for witness intimidation and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

It was just on New Year’s Day 2008 that Ware’s brother, 19-year-old Markeen Starks, was fatally stabbed. Emmanuel Okoro, then 15, has been convicted of Starks’ Massachusetts second-degree murder. Witnesses say the two males got into a disagreement outside a family party and that is when Starks sustained fatal stab wounds to the neck, chest, shoulders, and face. Okoro will be eligible for parole in 15 years.

Mother of murder victim Chantel Matiyosus says suspect ‘let hate overcome everything’, Patriot Ledger, December 31, 2010
Brockton teen convicted of slaying, Boston Herald, December 30, 2010
Brockton teen shot to death, Wicked Local, April 27, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Massachusetts General Laws

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This is one of those stories from this year which would probably never happen in Boston. First of all, in Massachusetts, Murder in the First Degree carries a mandatory life sentence without parole. It leaves very little to work with when one is trying to make promises to suspects to “just tell the truth” and “I can get you out of here”.

At least, that is the way one would imagine it would work. The truth is that when police officers investigate a murder, they have usually already determined who they “like” for the charge. So, when they question their target, as we have discussed in the past, it is really merely an invitation to make statements that are inconsistent with their case (and therefore “lies” that the prosecution can use in court later. If they are really lucky, they might gain a confession from the unwary that can be used to nail the case closed rather quickly.

It is basically a “win-win” situation…at least until an experienced criminal defense attorney is brought into the picture…assuming one ever is.

But, I digress already.

I remember being asked to appear on Court TV years ago when the disappearance of Natalee Holloway came to light. Almost immediately, Joran van der Sloot (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) was the chief suspect. However, his dad had alot of power, advised sonny to shut his mouth, and he was free because of a lack of evidence shortly thereafter.

Dad’s not around now, and sonny has been talking.
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A funny thing happened to me today on the way to the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog: I got Pi…really angry. I had planned to end the week with a pleasant little story about a gentleman getting arrested at an MBTA stop. It appears that he turned out to be a Massachusetts sex offender and was urinating in public at the time.

Of course, I now see that our “news brief blogger” has already reported that story.

Anyway, my attention got diverted by two stories from Boston’s Supreme Judicial Court. The court’s rulings are not really what ignited the fire in my gut. It was some of the commentary from one of our esteemed political prosecutors.

Before I address the issue of Massachusetts Attorney General Hypocrisy, let me explain the first ruling. I will address the second story when I calm down…presumably on Monday.

You may recall the story of the late Christa Worthington from Cape Cod. She was murdered in her home in January, 2002. Her body was discovered with her 21/2 year old daughter huddled next to her lifeless body.

During the course of the criminal investigation, attention focused on Christopher McCowen, 30, the trash collector, known hereafter as the “Defendant”. The investigation continued as did the growth of public interest, particularly when books about the case, including Maria Flook’s book, Invisible Eden: A Story of Love and Murder on Cape Cod were published.
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Police think they have found the remains of Jonathan Chase DeBlase. The 3-year-old was last seen alive in March, but the authorities did not know that he and his sister Natalie were missing until last month. The search for the 4-year-old continues.

Now, the children’s father, John Joseph DeBlase, has been charged with two counts of murder. The authorities believe that the children were killed by their dad and stepmom. The Jonathan’s skeletal remains were discovered after his dad gave police information about where the body might be. DeBlase claimed that he couldn’t remember the exact location because he had been on sleeping pills.

Investigators believe that after Jonathan’s murder, DeBlase, Natalie, and Heather Keaton lived together until Natalie’s disappearance. The two adults, who were never married, are now blaming each other for the kids’ murders. Keaton, who is charged with two counts of neglect of a child and willful abuse, claims that DeBlase poisoned the kids. Meantime, DeBlase’s parents are accusing Keaton of killing the children during a fit of anger.

The search for the two children began after Keaton told police that she needed protection from DeBlase. She claimed that she was being held against her will and she signed a domestic violence petition. She has said that DeBlase would not let her check on the kids when they were non-responsive and that “choices were made…” DeBlase and Keaton have a baby together.

DeBlase has also been charged with two counts of abuse of a corpse and two counts of aggravated child abuse.

Father being charged in deaths of Alabama children, CNN.com, December 8, 2010
Dad of missing Ala. kids charged with murder, AJC/AP, December 8, 2010
Related Web Resource:
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A body was found this morning in the back seat of a car at 35 Rowe St. in Roslindale. Police told the Boston Globe that they believe it to be drug-related because it is a quiet neighborhood next to railroad tracks which makes it a good place for illicit meetings. The medical examiner removed the body from the gold Honda as police officers cordoned off the scene. A resident of the street said she was doing laundry when saw feet hanging out of the car.

Police didn’t say what types of injuries were involved, but they said that there was some evidence at the scene.

Source: The Boston Globe, Police probe possible drug slaying in Roslindale

This incident represents yet another possibly drug-motivated crime in the city this year. Fairly recent studies have shown, however, that the relationship between homicide and drug dealing is somewhat poorly understood. One study, which analyzed Boston police arrest data, indicated that less than 15% of reported Boston homicides involve drug use or dealing. Studies also show, on the other hand, that while drug trafficking is a relatively infrequent cause of homicide, it does provide a context in which homicides become more likely to occur.

The police officer’s comment about the quiet neighborhood being a good place for illicit meetings brings up an important search and seizure concept. Many allegedly illicit meetings occur in high-crime areas, not quiet neighborhoods like the one from this news story. Often times, police officers stop persons in high-crime areas based on merely a “hunch,” and this is unlawful. Simply being in a high-crime area is not enough to justify a stop because otherwise, people who live and work in high-crime areas would be left without the protections of the Fourth Amendment.

If you would like to speak with a defense attorney about any criminal issue, call Altman & Altman LLP.
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