After four days of deliberation, Tarayiah Hunt was found guilty of second-degree murder and Ernest Watkins was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Cherby LaJoie.
Both Hunt and Watkins had been indicted for first-degree murder.
Watkins, who was 14 years old at the time of the incident, was tried as an adult. The state automatically tries juveniles involved in murders as adults. Hunt was 20 at the time of the killing.
LaJoie was stabbed to death on Oct. 6, 2012. Watkins and Hunt were part of a group that allegedly tried to rob LaJoie as he was walking on Charles Street in Dorchester. LaJoie, 39, was stabbed 41 times.
Assistant District Attorney Mark Hallal presented surveillance footage from the Fields Corner MBTA station that showed Watkins after the time of the attack, walking in and out of the frame. Evidence collected by Boston Police homicide detectives included a knife missing the tip. The knife was located where Watkins disappeared from the camera’s view in the MBTA station.
The tip of the knife was later recovered from LaJoie’s body.
A trail of blood at the scene matched Hunt’s DNA. She received a cut on her hand during the assault. DNA from LaJoie and Watkins was also found on key attached to a shoelace, which opened Watkins’s Wentworth Street home.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 6, 2015.
