Homicide Watch Boston

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.

A minute before he was shot, Hoang Vo said, his assailant had asked him for a cigarette.

Vo and a friend were walking on Monsignor Patrick J Lydon Way on Oct. 30, 2011 when a would-be robber approached them on the street and shot them, authorities have said. Prosecutors said that man was John Graham, now 19 and on trial for the murder of Ciaran Conneely, a 36-year-old man who was killed in a separate incident on Oct. 10, 2011 on Nahant Avenue in Dorchester.

Vo, 22, testified that he and his friend had gone to a convenience store to buy a cigarillo to smoke marijuana and were walking back to his house when a young man sitting on some steps near the sidewalk asked for a cigarette. He and his friend kept walking. Seconds later, Vo said, he heard footsteps on the pavement behind him.

The man from the stairs had pulled up the hood of his sweatshirt, and now he had a gun. He demanded Vo and his friend empty their pockets.

“I’m going to give you to the count of three,” Vo recalled the man saying.

At that point, he and his friend began backing up into the street. But according to Vo, his friend said something first: “Three, two, one, nigger.”

“What happened then?” Prosecutor Ian Polumbaum asked Vo in court Friday.

“He shot us.”

Vo said he didn’t know he had been hit until his mom came outside screaming and told him to take off his jacket. Blood poured into his hand, he said. A bullet had lodged in his elbow. His friend fell to the ground and asked for an ambulance, Vo recalled.

The man who tried to rob them took off down Monsignor Patrick J Lydon Way in the direction of Dorchester Avenue.

Vo and his friend both survived the incident. He did not identify Graham as his attacker during the trial Friday. But prosecutors plan to argue that a bullet fragment recovered from either Vo or his friend matched the bullet that killed Conneely about three weeks earlier on Nahant Avenue, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office.

Prosecutors allege that Graham shot Conneely after attempting to rob him. He faces several charges, including first-degree murder, armed assault with intent to rob, and unlawful possession of a firearm, in connection with the killing of Conneely and the later shooting of Vo and his friend.

A 33-year-old man is accused of killing his father on Perham Street in West Roxbury, police said.

Officers on Friday responded to 105 Perham St. to perform a well-being check at about 8:30 a.m., according to a statement from the Boston Police Department. They found Mark Thomas Regan, 66, dead inside.

In the attic of the home, prosecutors said, police investigators found 33-year-old Mark Tomas Regan. The younger Regan was arrested and charged with murder. He was arraigned Monday in West Roxbury Municipal Court, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office.

Prosecutors said the younger Regan is on probation from previous convictions for unlawful possession of a firearm and assault with a dangerous weapon. He was held without bail, according to the district attorney’s office.

Police ask that anyone with information call homicide investigators at (617) 343-4470. To report a tip anonymously, call 1-(800)-494-TIPS or text the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463). 

See press releases from the Boston Police Department below:

DEATH INVESTIGATION: 105 Perham Street
March 14, 2014
At about 8:26 AM on Friday, March 14, 2014, officers assigned to District E-5 (West Roxbury) responded to a radio call for a well-being check at 105 Perham Street, West Roxbury.

Upon arrival, officers located a deceased adult male inside the house. The Boston Police Department is actively investigating the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident. Anyone with information is strongly urged to contact the Boston Police Homicide Unit at (617) 343-4470.

Community members who wish to assist this investigation anonymously can call the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-(800)-494-TIPS. You may also text the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463). The Boston Police Department stringently protects the identities of those who wish to remain anonymous and is interested only in your information, not your identity.

UPDATE: Police Arrests Suspect in Connection With the Homicide at 105 Perham Street in West Roxbury
March 15, 2014
Late last night, March 14, 2014, detectives from the Boston Police Homicide Unit arrested 33-year-old male Mark Regan of West Roxbury in relation to the homicide that occurred at 105 Perham Street. Regan was charged with Murder.

See a statement from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office below:

Man, 33, Charged in Father’s West Roxbury Murder

BOSTON, March 17, 2014—A West Roxbury man was formally charged today with his father’s shooting death in the home they shared, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.
MARK TOMAS REGAN (D.O.B. 7/21/80) was arraigned today in West Roxbury Municipal Court in connection with the fatal shooting of Mark Thomas Regan, 66. At the request of Assistant District Attorney David Fredette, Judge Franco Gobourne ordered the defendant held without bail.
Fredette told the court that Boston Police entered 105 Perham St. just before 8:30 Friday morning to perform a well-being check and found the victim deceased. They also found the defendant hiding in the building’s attic. The defendant was transported to Boston Police headquarters for an interview; he was placed under arrest late Friday.
The ongoing investigation led to the recovery of a handgun inside the attic. That handgun, Fredette said, was consistent with the weapon believed to have killed the elder Regan, but it has not yet been tested by ballisticians. The investigation also revealed that some of the victim’s co-workers, concerned about his absence from work, visited the home on Wednesday. The defendant allegedly told them that he wasn’t home and was out with friends. The victim’s car was outside the house.
The defendant is currently on probation following a 2½-year house of correction sentence on a 2010 Suffolk Superior Court conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm and assault with a dangerous weapon, Fredette said.
Regan is represented by attorney James Greenberg. He will return to court on April 16.

—30—

All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

A copy of Regan’s indictment has been added below.

The trial against the trio charged in Romeo McCubbin’s death is slowly developing as one of the defendant’s has asked for funds for an investigator, according to court documents.

Omar Bonner, 26, of Hyde Park, was granted $2,500 for an investigator during the first presentation of evidence in his case on March 12.

Bonner, along with Omar Denton, 29, and Javaine Watson, 23, are accused of fatally shooting McCubbin. All are being held without bail and have pleaded not guilty to first degree murder charges and possessing a firearm.

McCubbin was ambushed as he sat in his car near Havelock St. in Mattapan on Dec. 14, according to police reports. Bonner shot the 25-year-old multiple times and Denton then kicked him in the head.

A brief car chase ensued as a Boston police detective who heard the shots speed towards the men who had driven off at high speed.

Bonner ran out of the car, into the backyard of a house where police believe he tried to hide the weapon. Denton was soon found hiding under a nearby car. Watson was arrested later on Jan. 30.

Court documents show that  the firearm police allegedly saw Bonner discard has been matched to shell casings recovered at the shooting scene.

Bonner and Denton had a history of violence. They were found guilty in 2011 of possessing an illegal weapon, court records show. Denton stood trial in 2004 for the murder of 19-year-old Cedric Phillips and was acquitted in that case.

McCubbin was arrested in early 2013 for possession of marijuana and a firearm, according to the Norwood Patch.

Prosecutors have not disclosed a motive for the shooting.

3^rd Defendant Held in December Homicide

BOSTON, Jan. 30, 2014—A third defendant has been held without bail in the shooting death last month of Romeo McCubbin, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

JAVAINE WATSON (D.O.B. 10/11/90) of Dorchester was arraigned on a murder charge this afternoon in Dorchester Municipal Court following his arrest this morning by Boston Police homicide detectives. Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum recommended that he be held without bail; Judge James Coffey granted that request.

Prosecutors say Watson acted in concert with at least two other men to ambush, shoot, and kill McCubbin, 25, on Havelock Street at about 1:45 a.m. on Dec. 14. His co-defendants, OMAR BONNER (D.O.B. 8/2/87) of Hyde Park and OMAR DENTON (D.O.B. 5/9/84) of Milton, were arrested shortly after the shooting and are likewise held without bail.

The investigation into McCubbin’s homicide remains very active, Conley said, and anyone with information on his slaying or any other is urged to contact Boston Police homicide detectives at 617-343-4470.

“The public will always be our most effective partner in investigating, solving, and prosecuting violent crime,” Conley said.

Watson is represented by attorney Brian Kelly. He will return to court on Feb. 27.

A statement from Conley’s office- Dec. 16, 2013:

Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office > Press Office > Press Releases > Press Releases 2013 > Two Men, Both with Prior Gun Convictions, Held in Weekend Homicide

Two Men, Both with Prior Gun Convictions, Held in Weekend Homicide

BOSTON, Dec. 16, 2013—Two men, both with prior gun convictions, were held without bail at their arraignment today for the shooting death this weekend of 25-year-old Romeo McCubbin in Mattapan, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

OMAR BONNER (D.O.B. 8/2/87) of Hyde Park and OMAR DENTON (D.O.B. 5/9/84) of Milton was arraigned on charges of murder, unlawful possession of a firearm as a second or subsequent offense, and resisting arrest.

Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum. Told the court that McCubbin was “essentially ambushed” in a vehicle on Havelock Street at about 1:45 Saturday morning and ended up on the sidewalk just outside the car. Both defendants allegedly approached him with firearms. One of them shot him repeatedly at close range and the other kicked him in the head, Polumbaum said.

Both assailants fled the area but were seen driving away at a high rate of speed by a Boston Police detective who heard the gunshots and followed them. When they got to Bonner’s family’s home on Wood Avenue, they allegedly saw the detective and ran. Both men allegedly discarded firearms as they fled.

Bonner fought with police but was taken into custody. The firearm he allegedly tossed was a .380. Denton attempted to hide under a car but was also apprehended. The firearm he allegedly tossed was a .25.

Both men’s clothing was consistent with investigators’ information about the suspects at the scene, Polumbaum said. Bonner’s handgun was test-fired and found to be the source of shell casings found in the immediate area of McCubbin’s body, he added.

Bonner and Denton both pleaded guilty in 2011 to separate firearms possession charges, with Bonner receiving a two-year sentence and Denton receiving two-and-a-half years. Both men additionally received probationary sentences that began upon their release. Denton was acquitted of first-degree murder after two trials in the 2004 shooting death of 19-year-old Cedric Phillips on West Selden Street. In that case, prosecutors alleged that Denton was beating a woman when Phillips and another man passed by in a car, saw what was happening, and intervened on the woman’s behalf. Phillips was shot in the head during the altercation that followed and died of his injury.

Bonner was represented by attorney John Tardif. Denton was represented by attorney Timothy Bradl. Both will return to court on Jan. 14.

Copies of the indictments have been added below.

Prosecutors have charged a Dorchester man they believe to be responsible for a fatal Christmas day shooting after he walked into a police station to retrieve his car, which had been left near the scene of the crime.

At his arraignment in Dorchester Municipal Court on Wednesday, Ian Holness, 27, pleaded innocent to murdering 36-year-old Rashaan O’Neill, of Randolph.

Prosecutors allege that on the night of Dec. 24 Holness and O’Neill separately attended the same concert on Talbot Avenue and an after-party on Wales Street.

In the basement of the house-party, Holness allegedly shot O’Neill in the back of the head, prosecutors said.

A group of women who had been standing near O’Neill when he was shot told police that as they fled the house they were fired at by someone in a dark sedan.

One of the women was hit in the hand and taken to Carney Hospital.

Officers canvasing the area where the women were shot at found spent shell casings and a damaged 2002 Jaguar registered to Holness, prosecutors said.

Inside the car, they found several more shell casings, which were matched to casings inside the Wales Street home.

Holness was arrested later Christmas Day when he entered the police station on Blue Hill Avenue to recover his car.

He was ordered held without bail and will return to court on April 8.

A Boston Superior Court jury Feb. 28 found 26-year-old Antwan Wathey guilty of second-degree murder in the hit-and-run death of James A. Taylor.

“This was not an accident,” Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a press release following the verdict. “This wasn’t negligent or reckless conduct. This was an intentional act using a motor vehicle as a weapon. It’s an appropriate verdict and I hope it Mr. Taylor’s family takes some satisfaction knowing the jury recognized the magnitude of this crime.”

Prosecutors said Taylor and a friend were walking on Talbot Avenue in Dorchester when they came across Wathey and an associate. Wathey and Taylor were allegedly involved in an ongoing dispute over Wathey’s treatment of his girlfriend, who was also Taylor’s cousin.

Wathey and Taylor briefly fought, prosecutors said, immediately after which Taylor brandished a knife while walking away.

Shortly thereafter,  Wathey got in his 2000 Mazda Millennia and accelerated towards Taylor while he was crossing Talbot Avenue, the prosecution alleged. Taylor died later at Boston Medical Center.

Officer Tom Barrett of the Boston Police Fatal Accident Reconstruction Team said during testimony for the prosecution that there were no skid marks at the crash scene even though Wathey’s car would have left marks if he had been heavily breaking.

The evidence on Wathey’s car, Barrett said, showed that Taylor rolled over the top of the vehicle, and landed over 68 feet away from where he was initially struck.

Wathey fled Boston after the alleged crime and was arrested in Tarzana, Calif. in July 2012, the district attorney’s office said.

Wathey and his uncle, Tommy Brown, allegedly traveled to Providence then to New York following the incident, Assistant District Attorney Masai King said. Wathey then allegedly traveled to California by way of Atlanta.

King said the dates on which Wathey traveled to Providence and New York correspond to dates his uncle R&B singer Bobby Brown was performing in those cities. King did not say if Wathey is believed to have been in contact with Bobby Brown at this time.

Boston police have identified the man fatally shot on Itasca Street on Sunday night as 25-year-old Kenneth Rowell Jr., of Dorchester.

Rowell was found with gunshot wounds outside 196 Itasca Street, police said.He was pronounced dead at the scene.

No arrests have been made in the case.

Boston police have identified the man fatally shot Feb. 23 on Boston Street as 23-year-old Daniel Paul Taylor, of Dorchester.

Officer’s found Taylor’s body outside on Boston Street between Howell and Bellflower streets near the sprawling South Bay shopping plaza at about 12:42 a.m., police said in a post on bpdnews.com.

He was taken to Boston Medical Center with a gunshot wound, where he was later pronounced dead, police said.

Police have not made any arrests in connection to the shooting.

From bpdnews.com, Feb. 23, 2014:

At about 12:42am, on Sunday, February 23, 2014, officers from District C-6 (South Boston) responded to an outside scene for shots fired in the area of 126 Boston Street in Dorchester. On arrival, officers located a male victim suffering from what appeared to be a gunshot wound. The victim, suffering from life threatening injuries, was transported to the Boston Medical Center where he was later pronounced deceased.

The Boston Police Homicide Unit is actively investigating the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident. Anyone with information is asked to call the Homicide Unit at (617) 343-4470.

Community members who wish to assist this investigation anonymously can do so by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1 (800) 494-TIPS or by texting the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463). The Boston Police Department is interested only in your information, not your identity.

On a day dominated by the slow and painstakingly formal process of submitting evidence, several moments of grief erupted in Courtroom 815 and hung like a pall over the trial of Anthony Robertson.

Robertson, 22, is accused of fatally shooting 25-year-old Aaron Wornum in June of 2011 in Dorchester. On Thursday, he sat quietly next to his attorney while prosecutors spent nearly an hour entering pictures of his alleged victim’s blood-stained clothing into the court record.

Several feet away from Robertson, Wornum’s family sat bunched together on a second-row bench. When Assistant District Attorney David Fredette placed a picture of Wornum’s bruised face – taken during his autopsy – on a projector screen, one woman burst into tears and ran out of the court.

She remained outside until Dr. Henry Nields, the city’s chief medical examiner, finished detailing the various injuries on Wornum’s body.

“He was a young man,” Nields said. “He had three gunshot wounds to his body and blunt impact wounds to his head and upper extremities.”

Prosecutors have said that Wornum’s phone records show he spoke with Robertson not long before the shooting.

The two had planned to meet up on the night of June 26, 2011, according to a press release from the Suffolk County district attorney’s office. When they did, Robertson allegedly shot Wornum and stole a gold chain from him in front of several witnesses.

Nields said that a bullet appeared to have grazed the back of Wornum’s neck, indicating that the shooter fired at him from the side.

Two more bullets hit him in his right arm. One traveled through his body and damaged his spinal cord, likely paralyzing him, while the other severed the carotid artery in his neck, Nields said in his brief testimony.

Police arrested Robertson for the shooting on July 13, 2011.

Detective James Bowden, the officer who took Robertson into custody,  told the jury on Thursday that the Boston Police Department’s fugitive unit found him hiding under a pile of clothes in a squalid room two stories above his mother’s apartment on Arbutus Street.

“It was probably the worst house I’ve ever been in in my entire life,” Bowden said of the apartment where he found Robertson.

“It was just trash and maggots and babies crawling in it – and feces smell,” he added, eliciting gasps and groans.

Bowden said that when he reached into a pile of clothes stashed in a closet he felt a sweaty arm, and pulled out Robertson.

William Earl was officially indicted for first-degree murder Friday for the fatal January stabbing of 19-year-old Samuel Constant, prosecutors said.

Earl, 20, was arraigned Jan. 10 in West Roxbury District Court. Friday’s indictment moves the case to Suffolk Superior Court.

Earl allegedly stabbed Constant multiple times outside of Constant’s girlfriend’s Hyde Park apartment, according to prosecutors’ official statement of the case. Responders found Constant with stab wounds to his face and chest area, and pronounced him dead at the scene.

An autopsy determined Constant died of the stab wounds, prosecutors said.

Earl was arrested shortly after the alleged attack and allegedly confessed to a security guard who apprehended him.

“I just killed someone, and if you walk straight ahead, you’re going to find something,” prosecutors allege Earl said to the Longwood Security officer.

Constant’s girlfriend allegedly witnessed the beginning of the purported Jan. 9 attack inside her Margaretta Drive apartment, according the official allegations.

The girlfriend allegedly found Earl with Constant when she arrived home from work, the documents says. Earl, who she did not know, was allegedly “acting in an odd manner that made her feel uncomfortable,” according to the court document.

Earl and Constant allegedly began to fight after Earl pulled out a knife and began acting in a way that made Constant’s girlfriend feel threatened, prosecutors say.

During the alleged fight, Earl tried to stab Constant and his girlfriend, the official allegations say. The girlfriend told authorities she opened the apartment door, and Earl ran out with Constant chasing him.

A witness outside saw the two men running and one of them collapse in the parking lot outside the apartment building, according to prosecutors.

Earl allegedly continued to run down the road, where a security guard spotted him attempting to stop traffic on Margaretta Drive near Crowne Point Drive, prosecutors said.

The guard apprehended Earl while he was trying to flee into the woods, the allegations say.

Earl allegedly told detectives he had been attacked, and claimed he had been stabbed and shot, prosecutors say. Earl denied to the police that he knew someone named Sam, and said he did not remember what happened that night because he was high, the state’s allegations say.

Investigators allegedly found Earl’s phone in a search of the Margaretta Drive apartment.

Earl pleaded innocent to the charges at his district court arraignment. He has been held without bail ever since. His attorney, Anthony Fugate, did not respond to a request for comment.

Constant’s death was Boston’s first homicide of 2014.

From the Suffolk district attorney’s office, Feb. 21, 2014:

BOSTON, Feb. 21, 2014—The Mattapan man charged in last month’s stabbing death of 19-year-old Samuel Constant has been indicted for first-degree murder and will remain held without bail pending trial, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

WILLIAM EARL (D.O.B. 8/9/93) was arraigned yesterday on a charge of first-degree murder in connection with the Jan. 9 fatal stabbing in West Roxbury. Constant’s murder marked Boston’s first homicide of 2014.

At the request of Assistant District Attorney Tara Burdman, Clerk Magistrate Gary Wilson ordered that Earl continue to be held without bail, as he has since his arraignment last month in West Roxbury District Court. Yesterday’s arraignment moves the case from the district court to Suffolk Superior Court, where it will be adjudicated.

Burdman told the court that, on the day of the killing, Constant’s girlfriend arrived at her apartment to find the victim and the defendant, whom she did not know. Constant and Earl became involved in a physical struggle after Earl allegedly pulled out a knife and repeatedly stabbed at Constant, who attempted to dodge the knife, prosecutors said. Earl then ran from the apartment and Constant chased after him onto Margaretta Drive.

During the altercation, Burdman said, Constant suffered multiple stab wounds that perforated his lung and an artery. He collapsed in parking lot and died of his injuries.
Earl was apprehended by a Longwood Security officer patrolling the area and was transported to Brigham and Women’s Hospital for treatment of injuries to his left ear and head.

Jen Sears is the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Earl is represented by Anthony Fugate.

A copy of Earl’s indictment has been added below.