Homicide Watch Boston

Judge Kenneth Fishman sentenced Tarayiah Hunt to life in prison and Ernest Watkins IV to four to five years on Monday. The pair were convicted in the 2012 murder of Cherby LaJoie.

Watkins, 17, will be held in the Department of Youth Services until he turns 18, when he will be transferred to state prison. Hunt, 23, will be eligible for parole after 15 years.

Hunt and Watkins were part of a group that beat and stabbed 39-year-old LaJoie more than 40 times on Charles Street in Dorchester, according to a press release by the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office. Watkins was 14 at the time.
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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.
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