**Update (8/18/2014): Chin was arraigned Monday, Aug. 18, on count of murder in East Boston Municipal Court and is currently being held without bail. He will return to court on Sept. 17, 2014.**
Boston police have arrested a Lynn man in connection with the 2013 homicide of Sherry L. Bradley, 32, also of Lynn.
Chhoeut Chin, 42, was taken into custody on Friday, Aug. 14, and is described by police as Bradley’s former boyfriend.
Bradley’s body was found near 800 Border St. in East Boston on August 1, 2013, and the medical examiner ruled her death a homicide in April of this year. The manner of her death has not yet been released.
Bradley, a Lynn native, was an administrative assistant and mother of four. She enjoyed singing, dancing and especially spending time with her family.
A press release from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office below.
Aug. 18, 2014
2013 Death Ruled a Homicide; Suspect Held Without Bail
DV Murder Conviction Affirmed in Unrelated Case
(BOSTON) — A man once described as “stalker-like” in his relationship with 32-year-old Sherry Leigh Bradley was held without bail more than a year after she was found dead in an East Boston parking garage, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.
CHHOEUT CHIN (D.O.B. 4/12/72) of Lynn was arraigned today in East Boston Municipal Court on one count of murder. At the request of Assistant District Attorney Mark Lee, deputy chief of the DA’s Homicide Unit, Judge John E. McDonald ordered him held without bail.
Lee told the court that Bradley, also a Lynn resident, was found dead by a cleaning crew on the floor of a Border Street parking garage on the morning of Aug. 1, 2013. Though the cause and manner of her death were not immediately determined, Boston Police homicide detectives and Suffolk prosecutors have been investigating the fatality since that time and learned that she had been in a relationship with Chin.
The relationship, Lee said, was marked by reports of “stalker-like behavior” and documented threats to kill her. In April of this year, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled her death a homicide by asphyxiation.
Lee told the court that Chin entered the garage at 800 Border St. at about 9:00 a.m. in a blue Honda with distinctive aftermarket parts and repair work. He spent about 15 minutes there, Lee said, before depositing Bradley’s body on the ground, looking around, and leaving the scene. No other vehicles were in the area of the garage during this time.
The cleaning crew came across Bradley’s body less than 10 minutes after he left. They had been in the same area at about 8:30 that morning and did not notice anything amiss at that time.
When interviewed, Chin allegedly told police that he didn’t know Bradley – a statement contradicted by witnesses who claimed to have seen the two of them in Chin’s distinctive vehicle the day before she was found dead.
In as unrelated case of fatal domestic violence, the state’s highest court today affirmed the first-degree murder conviction of JOSE TORRES (D.O.B. 11/13/81) in the 2008 strangulation and stabbing death of 29-year-old Melissa Santiago.
The Supreme Judicial Court found no merit to Torres’ claims in an appeal of his 2009 conviction under the theories of deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity and cruelty. A neighbor discovered Santiago’s body in a pool of blood with an extension cord wrapped around her neck and a slash wound to her throat after the two oldest children, then ages 6 and 5, appeared at the neighbor’s apartment and told her that their mother was dead.
Chin was represented by attorney Brian Kelley and will return to court on Sept. 17. Torres was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney David Deakin and his conviction was defended by Assistant District Attorney Donna Patalano. He was represented on appeal by attorney Emmanuel Howard.
