Homicide Watch Boston

A man was fatally shot outside a barbershop in Mattapan where he was reportedly taking his son to get a haircut during the day Tuesday.

Marcus Hall

Marcus Hall, 31, of Dorchester was shot multiple times, including twice in the head, according to WCVB, outside the Hair It barbershop around 1186 Blue Hill Ave. shortly after noon. Hall was taking his four-year-old son to get a hair cut, the boy’s mother told CBS Boston.

Friends and relatives described Hall as a dedicated father. Boston Police ask anyone with information about the shooting to contact homicide detectives at 617-343-4470. People who want to leave anonymous tips can do so by calling 1-800-494-TIPS or texting the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).

The high school student who was shot and killed outside the Jeremiah E. Burke High School early Wednesday afternoon has been identified as 17-year-old Raekwon Brown.

Brown was one of four people shot outside the high school. The other three victims, two teenagers and a 67-year-old woman, survived.

Raekwon Brown

After struggling academically during his first years at school, Burke school principal Lindsa McIntyre told the Boston Globe that Brown, a junior at the school, had earned an A in biology and a B in math this school year.

More than 100 people turned out for a vigil for Brown, and friends and community members erected a memorial for him near the school.

Neighbors and business owners near the school told the Globe that Brown was polite and respectful. Family members said he was also known to be a prankster at home, and friends remembered him as a laid-back person who enjoyed music and dancing.

A man was shot and killed at a cookout over the weekend in Dorchester.

The incident happened Saturday around 11:15 p.m. at 8 York St., just a block from the man’s family’s home, according to the Associated Press.

Ronnie Headley, 33, was with others celebrating a friend’s birthday when he was shot, according to the Boston Globe. A neighbor reported hearing four shots, then seeing Headley lying in the street near a driveway.

Neighbors and then paramedics tried to resuscitate Headley, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Friends and family members told the Globe that Headley was an outgoing man who loved food and spending time with family.

Police have not made any arrests in connection with Headley’s death. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Boston Police homicide detectives at 617-434-4470. Anonymous tips can be left by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line, 1-800-494-TIPS, or by texting the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).

The man who was shot and killed in Dorchester on May 29 was a father and a veteran, according to family members.

Police received a call Sunday night around 10:20 p.m. reporting someone had been shot at 131 Devon St. When officers arrived, they were directed to the next street over, 152 Stanwood St. The two properties share a yard. There, they found a man who had been shot in the chest. Emergency responders took the man, later identified as 31-year-old Levar Godfrey, to Boston Medical Center, where he died.

Levar Godfrey

Godfrey had a 7-year-old daughter and served in the Army when he was younger. Family members described him as a “hard working family man who would give any stranger the shirt off his back, just to make them smile.”

He had worked as a home health aide, according to a profile page on a website for caregivers.

Police have not arrested anyone in connection with Godfrey’s murder. Anyone with information is asked to call police detectives at 617-343-4470. Anonymous tips can be made by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS, or by texting the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).

By Miharu Sugie

Thursday marked the beginning of the trial for three out of four people accused of killing Romeo McCubbin in Dorchester in 2013.

Andrew Robertson, Omar Bonner and Omar Denton are charged for the Dec. 14, 2013 shooting on Havelock Street. A fourth defendant Javaine Watson will be tried in court later because of health issues, according to officials from the Suffolk County DA’s office. 

Romeo McCubbin

Both the prosecution and defense presented opening statements Thursday morning, and in the afternoon, the prosecution began calling witnesses.

The first witness in court was Ian Simpson, a 49-year-old resident of Havelock Street. Simpson, a construction worker originally from Jamaica, described what he heard and saw that night. A key piece evidence for the prosecution in this case is the surveillance video that Boston Police obtained from Simpson’s security cameras facing Havelock Street.

It was shortly after 1:30 a.m., Simpson described while sitting on the witness stand, when he heard four to five gunshots and the sound of a car bumping into another car. He was in his bed on the second floor, he testified, trying to sleep.

From his bedroom window facing the street, the Dorchester resident said he saw a man falling out of a vehicle in front of his house and a car pull off.

“I saw a guy with a gun in his hand. I heard like a click,” Simpson said. “Then I see the hand motion to reset the gun. And I heard more gun shots.”

Soon after, Simpson said he saw another man kicking the person lying on the ground, yelling and swearing. Just as displayed in the security video played in the courtroom, Simpson saw two men running away. Policemen arrived at the scene shortly after. Eventually, two policemen came to his door.

Although the defendants’ attorneys repeatedly asked the witness whether he remembered the names and the physical appearances of the Boston Police officers who spoke with him and his father that night, Simpson was unable to identify any. Simpson also denied having said that he saw “two thin black males” on Havelock Street.  

The prosecution testimony will continue in courtroom 817 at Suffolk Superior Court. For more details on the incident in December 2013: Universalhub.

Christopher Jackson, the 29-year-old man convicted last week of killing his childhood friend Keosha Gilmore in February of 2012, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday.

Gilmore, 25, was shot Feb. 19 while sitting in a car with her boyfriend on Alabama Street in Mattapan. At the time of the murder, police did not have a suspect but did collect the gun, latex gloves and other items from near the scene of the crime. The case remained unsolved until April 2013, when officers arrested Jackson. Gilmore’s murder was featured on FOX 25’s New England’s Unsolved in 2013, which her family says led to a tip which led to Jackson’s arrest.

Keosha Gilmore

When police interviewed Jackson, they obtained a sample of his DNA, which matched the items police found in a nearby cemetery after the murder. In a second interview with police, Jackson admitted to discarding the items, and said he “made the mistake of letting my anger overshadow my intelligence.”

In court at the sentencing, Gilmore’s friends and relatives read victim impact statements that conveyed just how much Keosha’s loved ones miss her.

“She was a friend to everyone she met – including Mr. Christopher Jackson. She was sensitive to other’s needs, compassionate, caring, and non-judgmental,” her mother said. “I will never see Keosha get married. I’ll never be a grandmother to her children. She’ll never be a wife or a mother herself. We’ll never know what her future would have been …. I feel like a part of me is missing. It’s like a limb is gone.”

Gilmore’s best friend also read an impact statement to the court, calling her friend an “amazing, kind-hearted, understanding, all-around angel from God.”

Jackson, whom a jury convicted of second-degree murder, received an automatic sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years. In addition to murder, the jury convicted Jackson of multiple gun charges. A judge ordered him to serve six to seven years for those crimes, concurrently.

Two brothers accused of stabbing 23-year-old Christopher Borgella outside the DoubleTree Hotel in Dorchester in 2014 have been convicted of second-degree murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Harold Coleman, 28, and Shawn Coleman, 24, both of the South End, were convicted on Monday, May 16 and sentenced on Tuesday, May 24. A judge sentenced each man to a mandatory life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years. Harold Coleman was also convicted of malicious destruction of property over $250.

The brothers were arrested in July of 2014 for their role in Borgella’s death in the early morning hours of March 1.

Borgella was with a group of friends at a party inside a room at the DoubleTree, and the Colemans were with another group of friends at the same party. After a fight broke out between the two groups, hotel employees asked them to leave. According to a statement from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office:

Once outside, the two groups became involved in another physical altercation in the hotel parking lot. Evidence proved that the defendants attacked Borgella’s group in the parking lot, with Shawn Coleman wielding a knife and Harold Coleman a detachable steering wheel. Borgella suffered a fatal stab wound in that attack, and another man suffered non-fatal injuries.

At Tuesday’s sentencing, prosecutors read a victim impact statement that Borgella’s mother wrote:

We pride ourselves on being all that we can be to show our kids down all the right paths. My son will never get to pursue his dreams of playing professional basketball, nor will he ever get a chance at marriage, he will never get to have his own children and instill the word of God, education and determination in them as I did in him. Sleepless nights, depression, anxiety all things that have come with this tragedy … my life will never and could never be the same.

The man who was fatally shot last Thursday night in Codman Square has been identified.

David Stewart, 22, of Dorchester, was shot around 9:15 p.m. Thursday, May 19, near 87 Southern Ave. Police responded to the scene and emergency responders took Steward, who was known to some of his friends by the nickname David Bones, to Boston Medical Center where he later died.

David Stewart

Stewart is the city’s first homicide victim since March. He was the third person shot in Dorchester on Thursday; two people were shot on Blue Hill Avenue earlier in the evening, and were taken to the hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Stewart attended South Boston High School, according to his Facebook page. Friends remembered Stewart as a fun-loving person who enjoyed playing basketball.

Police continue to investigate and have not yet made any arrests in connection with the shooting. Anyone with information is asked to contact Boston Police homicide detectives at 617-343-4470. People who prefer to leave anonymous tips can call the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS or can text the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).

A jury acquitted Kewon Kelley of first-degree murder charges on Monday. Kelley’s is the first homicide trial acquittal in Suffolk County Superior Court this year.

Rayshawn Lamont Few

Kelley, 29, of Plymouth, was charged with the shooting death of Rayshawn Few, a 27-year-old father who reportedly tried to diffuse an argument outside a party on Feb. 17, 2013. Few was shot in the head and collarbone and died at the scene.

The trial lasted about a week and a half. Jurors deliberated one full day before returning their verdict.

A jury convicted Phillip Carrington, the man who killed Celestine Walker in 2013, of second-degree murder on Tuesday. Carrington was first tried in November, but that trial resulted in a mistrial when jurors declared themselves hopelessly deadlocked after more than seven days of deliberations.

The jury’s verdict and Carrington’s sentencing comes approximately three years to the day of Walker’s death. Carrington, 51, strangled Walker to death in her Jamaica Plain apartment on Heath Street. She was last seen alive on May 11, 2013, which was Mother’s Day. Her body was found May 16, 2013.

Celestine Walker

Carrington and Walker had been in a relationship, and Carrington was physically abusive to Walker, prosecutors argued. Walker attempted to hide the abuse from her family.

Walker’s family members testified in court that they confronted Carrington after learning of her death, and after initially denying his involvement, they testified that he told them her murder was an accident.

On Wednesday, a judge sentenced Carrington to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 15 years. Carrington was also sentenced to jail time for violating a restraining order Walker had taken out against him.

Walker’s daughter addressed the court before Carrington’s sentencing.

“We will forever have to live with the fact that such thoughtless, hateful behavior is what led to another human being losing their life before their time. From this day forth, our family has to battle with constant feelings of loss and loneliness,” she said.

The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office reminded victims of domestic violence that they should call 911 in an emergency. A statewide domestic violence hotline, SafeLink, is also available at 877-785-2020.

SafeLink is answered by trained advocates 24 hours a day in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, as well as TTY at 877-521- 2601. It also has the capacity to provide multilingual translation in more than 140 languages.