Articles Posted in Murder

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The Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog acknowledges that this was a bad weekend for Craigslist. Of course, some others would be quick to suggest it was a bad weekend for escorts. Let’s just say it was an eerily coincidental weekend for alleged criminals who prey upon Craigslist advertisers.

Remember the so-called “Craigslist Killer” from around a year ago? Well, before we hit the update on that particular gentleman, let’s discuss what may be his protégé…Luther H. (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) a man from Brockton. He is accused of robbing a female (alleged) escort at gunpoint after arranging a meeting with her through Craigslist, a classified advertisement website.

Although arraigned on August 5th for the July 9th incident, the Defendant’s tale hit the list of the infamous this past weekend. Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz announced that the Defendant and his temporary ladyfriend had agreed to meet to exchange sexual services for pay at a “predetermined location”. Said location was apparently a vacant house.

At said house, the Defendant is said to have surprised the escort by what he pulled out. It was a gun. He then allegedly ordered her to strip and restrained her using zip-cuffs. Next, the Defendant asked his complainant-to-be what possessions she had for him to steal, to which she replied that her valuables were in her car.

According to Cruz, the Defendant stole the victim’s money, purse, laptop, and cellphone from her car.
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Christina H., 23, of Acton (hereinafter, the “Defendant”), was arraigned yesterday, beside her attorney, in connection with the death of her 13-month-year-old son. She pleaded not guilty to charges that she beat him to death inside her Great Road home this past May..

She was held without bail.

Prosecutors say that the Defendant called 911 around 4:30 a.m. on May 12th, 2010, and reported that her son had fallen out of the crib and hit his head. The child was taken from the Defendant’s home and rushed to Emerson Hospital in Concord. It was there that the child was pronounced dead at 5:17 a.m.

The boy’s death has since been under investigation by Acton and State police, prosecutors say. Police learned that the night before he was killed, the boy was home with his mother and two-year-old sister.

“He appeared to be happy, healthy and playful. That night he had fed himself cheerios and drank a bottle before going to sleep at 8 p.m.,” law enforcement has indicated. However, an autopsy found the child suffered “multiple contusions, lacerations, internal bleeding and hemorrhages on the top of his head.”
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One thing that you get enough of as a Boston criminal lawyer is human drama. An example is the 10-year-old boy who accidentally fatally shot his cousin in 2007 in Roxbury. He has now testified at the trial of the boy’s mother, who is now facing an involuntary manslaughter charge for not properly storing the gun used in the shooting.

At the time of the incident, he was 7 years old.

The boy began his testimony with smiles…but that soon changed as he recalled the day at issue.

He recounted that he had been watching TV with Liquarry J., 8, (hereinafter, the “Deceased”) when the Deceased showed him the gun that he said belonged to his teenaged half-brother .

“I asked him if there were bullets in the gun. He said, ‘No,'” the boy said.

“I did it by accident,” he said.
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Well, we began this week on the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog discussing crimes that occur in the summer. Yesterday, I was reminded of a companion crime to drunk driving and too much partying.

Two Palmer residents now face criminal charges that they supplied alcohol to a 17-year-old boy who later died in a dirt bike accident.

For those of you who are not sure, the drinking age is currently 21.

Police say 45-year-old Robin K. and 28-year-old Kenneth D. (hereinafter collectively, the “Defendants”) will be summoned to appear in court on charges of procuring alcohol for a minor.

Detective Sgt. Scott Haley told the Republican newspaper of Springfield that
the teenager, Erik N. (hereinafter, the “Deceased”), drank alcohol during a bonfire in April at the apartment complex where the Defendants live.
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This blog has discussed many stories about family disputes which get out of hand. Some have resulted in assaults which cause great injury. Others have been known to result in death…whether intentional or accidental.

This one, though, seems to have taken domestic violence to an unusual level.

Authorities say that they went to investigate a 911 call from a gentleman who claimed that his girlfriend had lunged at him with a knife and had tried to set his clothes on fire.

The officers arrived at the Somerville home at about 6:30pm yesterday. This was apparently not the first such response; police indicate that they had responded to the same home at about 3 a.m. after a neighbor reported shouting
When they arrived, 33-year-old Carol K. attacked them with a knife.
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The Supreme Judicial Court has overturned Joann Sliech-Brodeur’s Massachusetts first-degree murder conviction. Sliech-Brodeur was convicted of killing her husband Joseph Brodeur, who was stabbed 34 times with a kitchen knife and may have sustained blunt force head trauma from a “pry bar” on July 28, 2004.

During Sliech-Brodeur’s criminal defense trial, the defense claimed that Sliech-Brodeur’s long-standing mental issues were made worse by Brodeur’s intentions to divorce her. A psychologist who testified on her behalf said that Sliech-Brodeur doesn’t remember stabbing her husband.

In February 2006, a jury rejected Sliech-Brodeur’s defense that she was not responsible for stabbing her husband because she was mentally ill. The then 61-year-old woman was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Now, however, the state’s highest court is saying that the discovery process that took place during the trial violated criminal procedure rules (including the state’s limitations on discovery in insanity cases) and prejudiced the West Springfield woman’s Massachusetts murder case. The court says that the psychiatric expert for the prosecution was given information he should not have obtained and that the defense should not have had to give prosecutors statements and notes she had made for her own psychiatric expert.

Finding that Sliech-Brodeur was “unconstitutionally forced to help the state convict her,” the court is ordering a new trial.

SJC overturns murder conviction for West Springfield woman, Boston.com, July 19, 2010
Mass. court orders new trial in husband’s death, Boston Herald, July 19, 2010
Woman guilty of first-degree murder in husband’s death, Mass Live, February 24, 2006

Related Web Resources:
Murder, Cornell University Law School
General Laws of Massachusetts
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Massachusetts had more than its fair share of crimes this past holiday weekend. There were shootings in the Boston area, one homicide and, as one would expect from such a weekend, plenty of vehicular crimes. Criminal Defense attorneys will be needed.

For example, one Massachusetts woman was arrested this weekend in Salem, N.H., after police said she stole purses and led them on a harrowing chase with her 12-year-old daughter in the car.

This would be Maria M., 36, of Lawrence (hereinafter, “Mother Defendant”). She is said to have targeted customers at the Christmas Tree Shops, Target, and Market Basket in the area. According to the authorities, she would reach for purses left in shopping carts while the women looked away and “larcenied” her financial cares away.

According to witnesses, Mother Defendant brought a “young girl”, presumably her daughter, along for the July 4th festivities, as she liberated items from said purses.

Once the police spotted the described car, along with the occupants matching the description, they tried to pull her over.

This did not go too smoothly.
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At his arraignment this month, Thomas J. Mortimer IV pleaded not guilty to four counts of Massachusetts first-degree murder in the deaths of his wife Laura Stone Mortimer, 2-year-old daughter Charlotte, 4-year-old son Thomas Mortimer V, and mother-in-law Ragna Ellen Stone. The 43-year-old Winchester software salesman was apprehended on June 17 close to the Vermont line after a driver that stopped to help him with his car on Route 10 recognized him and contacted the authorities.

An arrest warrant had been issued for Mortimer after the bodies were discovered in their home on June 16. Relatives reportedly had not been able to contact the family since June 14. Mortimer is accused of using “sharp objects” and “blunt force trauma” to kill the victims.

Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. says that Mortimer had left behind a note confessing to the murders while citing marital problems and financial issues. Mortimer is currently unemployed.

Mortimer’s Massachusetts criminal defense lawyer has said that the defendant’s mental health will be a factor in the case. She is seeking a psychiatric evaluation from Dr. Marc Whaley, a forensic psychiatrist, which indicates that she may make an insanity plea on Mortimer’s behalf. Mounting an insanity defense is an extensive process that can take over a year.

The charge of Massachusetts first-degree murder can refer to the premeditated and deliberate killing of another person, murdering someone while committing a capital felony, or the killing someone in an extremely cruel manner. A conviction for this crime can land a defendant in jail for life. This is not the type of case that you want to tackle without an experienced Boston homicide defense lawyer on your side.

Not-guilty plea in 4 Winchester deaths, Boston Globe, June 19, 2010
Four family members found dead in Winchester home, My Fox Buston, June 16, 2010

Related Web Resources:

Murder, Cornell Law School

The Insanity Defense, Washington Post Continue reading

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Amy Bishop, the University of Alabama-Huntsville professor charged with killing three colleagues and injuring three others on February 12, is now charged with Massachusetts first-degree murder in the 1986 shooting death of her brother Seth Bishop.

After originally finding that Bishop accidentally killed her 18-year-old brother, prosecutors reopened the case after the February incident. They now say that police back then did not share important evidence, including Bishop’s alleged attempt at stealing a car from a dealership after she shot her brother, and they are wondering why police never charged her.

At the time, Bishop told the cops that she accidentally shot Seth while attempting to unload her father’s 12-gauge shotgun. Her mother, who witnessed the incident, supported her daughter’s claim.

Investigators now say that even prior to shooting her brother, Bishop kept a newspaper clipping about the 1986 murders of TV star Patrick Duffy’s parents. A teenager had used the same type of gun to kill both of them before stealing a vehicle from an auto dealership.

John V. Polio, the Braintree police chief at the time of Seth’s shooting, said that the murder indictment does not convince him that Bishop is guilty. He says that back then there were too many unanswered questions to determine whether Bishop had intended to shoot her brother. Meantime, the Quincy, Massachusetts lawyer for Bishop’s parents says that the family maintains the tragic shooting incident was an accident and that Amy, who was very close to Seth, had no reason to kill him.

After she was indicted for her brother’s murder, Bishop tried to commit suicide. She was treated at a hospital before returning to an Alabama jail.

Bishop’s criminal defense lawyer says the latest charge against Bishop will be used in any insanity defense. Bishop is charged with capital murder and attempted murder in the Alabama University shootings.

Amy Bishop charged with murder for 1986 shooting of brother, Boston.com, June 16, 2010
Bishop lawyer says Boston case may help defense, Lake Wylie Pilot, June 16, 2010
Amy Bishop Attempts Suicide After Learning of Murder Charge in Brother’s Death, Say Sources, CBS, June 18, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Boston Ghosts Of Criminal Past Continue To Haunt Prof. Amy Bishop, Now Accused Of Murders By Firearm, Boston Criminal Lawyer, February 18, 2010
Police Report from the 1986 shooting, Boston.com Continue reading

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19-year-old Sherman Badgett is being held without bail. The Dorchester teenager has pleaded not guilty to charges of Massachusetts assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, first-degree murder, and unlawful possession of a firearm. Badgett is accused of fatally shooting Aaron Brown, also 19, on August 29, 2009 outside the Dorchester YMCA.

According to authorities Brown, Badgett, and Tyree Draughn, 18, became involved in dispute while at the YMCA dance. Draughn, who is charged with and has pleaded not guilty to the charges of assault with a dangerous weapon and accessory after the fact, allegedly pulled out a gun and pointed it at a group of people.

The teenagers were ordered to leave the YMCA and that was when Badgett allegedly pulled out a gun and fired three shots. One bullet struck a wall, another hit another victim’s ear, and the third one hit Brown. Badgett and Draughn were not apprehended until several month’s after Brown’s shooting death.

First-Degree Murder
First-degree murder is considered one of the most serious crimes and can come with a maximum lifetime prison sentence without the chance of parole. Bail is usually denied in these criminal cases.

Boston man pleads innocent to YMCA slaying, WHDH, June 15, 2010
Boston man pleads innocent to YMCA slaying, Boston Herald, June 15, 2010
Teen killed at YMCA dance, Boston.com, August 31, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Massachusetts General Laws

Murder, First Degree, Lectlaw.com Continue reading

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