Jurors are now deliberating in the murder trial of John Graham, accused of killing Ciaran Conneely, an Aran Islands native whose death has gripped the Irish community in Boston.
At closing arguments Tuesday, the prosecution said the best evidence against Graham, 19, came from his own mouth.
“He boasted to everybody that he had a body. ‘I got a body. I got a body,’ he went around saying. He told his sister,” said prosecutor Ian Polumbaum in a courtroom packed with onlookers and Conneely’s friends in Suffolk Superior Court.
Graham, who was arrested at age 16, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Conneely, 36, in Dorchester. Authorities said Conneely was killed in October 2011 following a botched robbery attempt.
The only piece of evidence clearly implicating Graham was his sister, Tenesia Graham’s testimony, the defense said, but even that was shaky.
Tenesia told a grand jury that accusations against her brother were lies. However, during the trial, she told the court her brother eventually admitted he shot somebody after her repeated questioning.
“All they have is her because the rest is crap,” defense lawyer Robert Sheketoff told the jury. “She saw the internal contradiction — she’s no dummy. She was changing it because she’s a liar.”
Sheketoff emphasized that the Graham siblings were not close. They did not grow up together, and John Graham spent much of his childhood homeless.
He also highlighted Tenisia’s relationship and baby with Joel Winslow, a member of her brother’s “inner crew.” The defense stressed Tenisia’s motive in her testimony was to protect Winslow and not her brother.
“She’s in a complicated relationship with Mr. Winslow and still loves him,” Sheketoff said.
Winslow was with Graham the night of the murder, but testified that he left when he felt Graham was looking for trouble. When Winslow was arrested for a suspended license a few weeks after the murder, he alerted police to Graham’s boastful confessions.
Taking inspiration from the biblical tale of Cain and Abel, Sheketoff told jurors that Winslow was like a big brother to Graham who in the end framed him.
The prosecution in return said Winslow would never hurt his “baby brother” and called the defense “pure fantasy.”
“They’re [the defense] trying to sell you a certain view of the evidence,” Polumbaum said.
Graham also faces an additional eight charges, which include the shooting of two other men, who he allegedly tried to rob in late October 2011.
“He got nothing and accomplished nothing except to leave three victims on the ground with sadly one dead,” said Polumbaum.
