Homicide Watch Boston

Police have officially identified the person who was Boston’s third homicide victim of 2016.

Alvin Sealey Jr., 19, was shot in the head early Wednesday morning in Dorchester on Washington Street near Dunbar Avenue.

Alvin Sealey Jr.

A law enforcement official told the Globe at the time that Sealey was “clearly targeted” in the shooting.

Sealey’s father, Alvin Sealey Sr., talked to the Boston Herald about his son, remembering him as outgoing with many friends.

“He was a happy kid just trying to live life to the best of his abilities,” Alvin Sealey Sr., 61, said of his son to the Herald. “He got along with everybody. It’s senseless. A bunch of people running around with guns and shooting people over small matters.”

Sealey Sr. told the Herald that his son worked two jobs and had a talent for playing the piano.

Sealey Sr. begged anyone with information to come forward and tell the police.

“A person had to see something — they had to see something,” he said to the Herald.

Police continue to investigate the fatal shooting and had not made any arrests as of Friday morning. Anyone with information is asked to call Boston Police homicide detectives at (627) 343-4470.

Anonymous tips can be called in to the CrimeStoppers Tip Line, (800) 494-TIPS, and anonymous texts can be sent by texting the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).

By Alexandra Malloy

A jury has convicted 21-year-old Charles Reddicks of murdering Boston man Mariano Malave in April 0f 2012. The Dorchester resident was charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery and other crimes after he shot 25-year-old Malave multiple times on April 27, 2012 in Jamaica Plain.

The verdict came after over three days of deliberations, but just four hours after a judge told the jury to begin deliberations anew after one juror needed to be replaced.

Mariano Malave

Shortly after 10:30 a.m. Thursday, the jury foreperson announced the jury had a question. A deliberating juror had expressed a personal reason that rendered her unable to continue her duty as a juror.

At a sidebar, Judge Linda Giles questioned the juror about her concern and reasons for a possible dismissal. The juror said she was distressed because the trial had prevented her to be able to make DCF-supervised visits with her daughter.

After further discussion, Judge Giles decided to excuse the juror due to her lack of willingness to participate in deliberations.

“She’s just a very unhappy person because she hasn’t visited her child in three weeks,” Giles said at the sidebar.

The court picked an alternate juror to take her place and Judge Giles told the jury they needed to begin deliberations again from the beginning.

By 2:30 p.m., the jury had returned their verdict, convicting Reddicks of second-degree murder and possession of a loaded firearm. He was found not guilty on the armed robbery charge.

Reddicks faces a possible life sentence in jail on Friday when he appears in court again for sentencing.

By Alexandra Malloy, Owen Pence Miharu Sugie and Catherine Lindsay

Jury deliberations began anew Thursday morning in the case of Charles Reddicks, a 21-year-old Jamaica Plain man accused of shooting and killing Mariano Malave in April of 2012.

A jury had been deliberating since late Tuesday morning, but when one juror needed to be replaced, the jury had to start deliberations from the beginning. Reddicks, who is charged with first-degree murder, along with armed robbery and other crimes, allegedly shot Malave in the head on April 27 over marijuana.

The prosecution brought multiple witnesses against Reddicks, including Ian Follett, who reportedly introduced Reddicks to Malave.

Mariano Malave

Follett, who was granted immunity by the police in exchange for full cooperation regarding information on the case, was introduced to Reddicks through a mutual connection. Follett and Reddicks struck up a business relationship in which Reddicks distributed marijuana to Follett, sometimes multiple times a week, who would then redistribute the product and take a fraction for his own consumption.

Early in his freshman year of high school, Follett began buying from Malave, who lived in the same neighborhood as Follett. However Follett re-kindled his partnership with Reddicks when Reddicks agreed to “front” him 2 ounces of marijuana, allowing Follett time to pay Reddicks the $500-600 he owed for the product.

Not long after, in April of 2012 after Follett had put Reddicks in contact with Malave, Reddicks asked Follett if Malave was known to carry a gun.

Defense attorney Rosemary Scapicchio questioned Follett intensely regarding the days leading up to the murder, pointing to discrepancies in the timeframe of events in Follett’s two testimonies, o. Additionally, Scapicchio pointed out that Follett had made no mention in his grand jury testimony of Reddicks’ asking if Malave had a gun, but seemed to remember it clearly approximately three and a half years later.

Witnesses from  the apartment building on Hyde Park Avenue where Malave was shot also testified to what they heard the evening of the fatal shooting. A heard graphic testimony from Dr. Katherine Lindstrom who works for the state medical examiner’s office. Lindstrom testified about the three gunshot wounds Malave suffered, and described how the bullet to his head affected his body, with those effects ultimately being fatal.

By Owen Pence

On Wednesday, more than ten years after the death of 26-year-old Julaine Jules, the man who killed her pleaded guilty. Shabazz Augustine, 36, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a life sentence in prison, with the possibility of parole in 15 years. 

Julaine Jules

“I am deeply, vehemently sorry, from the bottom of my heart,” Augustine said in court, addressing members of Jules’ family who were in the courtroom. 

On August 24th, 2004, Augustine, a former dental assistant from Dorchester, had his cousin call Jules in a ploy to lure her to Augustine’s home. The cousin told her Augustine had ingested poison. When Jules arrived at Augustine’s home, he suffocated her, then bagged her body and dumped it in the Charles River. He then set fire to her car. Augustine was not arrested until 2011. 

During the highly emotional day at Suffolk County Superior Court, Jules’ aunt Andrea Volcy read a statement written by the victim’s mother, Germaine Vincent.

“You left me to feel pain and suffering every day. You killed a part of me when you took my daughter,” Volcy said, tears in her eyes as her sister sobbed next to her. “You killed a part of me when you took my daughter. I can no longer share joy or happiness with my husband.”

Vincent and her husband emigrated from Haiti, with Jules’ father working long hours as a taxi driver to give their children a better life. 

Volcy, reading Vincent’s words to Augustine, expressed hope that he could one day become a different man.

Shabazz Augustine

“I pray for you every day,” she said, “so that God can change your heart.

A 19-year-old man was shot and killed in Dorchester early Wednesday.

Police responded to the area of Washington Street near Dunbar Avenue around 1:40 a.m. The victim, a man, was pronounced dead at the scene. He was shot in the head, according to the Boston Globe.

A law enforcement official told the Globe that the victim was “clearly targeted,” but more information about the shooting was not immediately available.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Boston Police homicide detectives at (617) 343-4470. Anonymous tipsters can call the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS or text the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).

By Alejandro Serrano

The latest court hearing related to Aaron Hernandez’s double murder case had to do with the vehicle prosecutors say he was driving when he allegedly killed 29-year-old Daniel de Abreu and 28-year-old Safiro Furtado in July 2012. 

Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Locke granted an intervention in Aaron Hernandez’s case to the Rhode Island dealership that leased Hernandez a 2006 Toyota 4Runner, on Tuesday, Jan. 19. 

The dealership says they need the SUV returned, “to complete a planned sale of the business,” according to the Boston Globe.

Hernandez was not present at the hearing.

The judge set another hearing date of Feb. 16 and a status conference for the upcoming murder trial was set for May 3.

A man was shot inside a home on Fenwood Road in Mission Hill on Wednesday evening.

Police originally responded to a radio call for an “unknown medical situation” around 7:40 p.m. at 55 Fenwood Rd. When officers arrived, they found a man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

Emergency responders transported the man to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead. Fenwood Road is a few blocks away from Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Eden Jacquet

Police identified the man on Friday as 30-year-old Eden Jaquet of Mission Hill. Jacquet was a father of a young girl. A GoFundMe page has been set up for his family members to pay for funeral and other expenses.

No other details about the incident have been made publicly available. At the scene Wednesday night, investigators interviewed multiple witnesses, according to the Boston Globe:

The block was sealed off with yellow police tape for more than two hours while uniformed officers and detectives investigated, taking photos of the home and shining flashlights on the front staircase.

Evidence markers were also visible on the street and sidewalk.

A police official at the scene said officers would be guarding the home throughout the night and were seeking a search warrant.

Anyone with information is asked to call Boston Police homicide detectives at 617-343-4470. Anonymous tips can be called in to the 1-800-494-TIPS, or texted, by sending the word “TIP” to CRIME (27463).

Police have identified the person fatally shot in East Boston early Sunday morning.

Cristofer Perez-De la Cruz

Christofer Perez-De la Cruz, 16, was found shot on Falcon Street around 1:35 a.m. Sunday. Emergency responders transported Perez-De la Cruz to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

A nearby resident who was doing laundry was startled when she heard gunshots. According to the Boston Globe:

She went to her front porch, where she saw Perez-De la Cruz lying on the sidewalk, with his face covered in blood.

She dialed 911. “I was just praying to the Lord that he would make it,” Arteaga told the Globe.

Anyone with information is asked to call BPD homicide detectives at 617-343-4470. Anonymous tipsters can call the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS, or text the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).

Michael McCarthy, the man accused of killing Dorchester toddler Bella Bond and then dumping her body in the ocean, was held without bail Monday at Suffolk County Superior Court after he pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging him with first-degree murder.

Michael P. McCarthy

McCarthy, 35, was the boyfriend of Bella Bond’s mother, Rachelle Bond. He reportedly lived with Rachelle and Bella in Dorchester when, in late May or early June, he allegedly killed the toddler, then wrapped her up in a tarp and dumped her in the harbor in South Boston.

Bella’s body washed ashore on Deer Island at the end of June. Around the country, Bella became known as “Baby Doe” after investigators released a realistic computer-generated image of the girl, asking anyone with information to come forward and identify her.

In September, after a friend of Rachelle Bond’s tipped off authorities, and Bond and McCarthy were taken into custody. Bond was arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court earlier this week. She is charged with being an accessory after the fact, as she allegedly helped McCarthy transport and dump her daughter’s body.

Bond told investigators that Bella was crying in her room one night when McCarthy said he would quiet her. Bond alleges she walked in on McCarthy punching Bella in the stomach, and seeing the toddler’s face swollen and gray.

In court Monday, McCarthy’s lawyer suggested that Rachelle killed Bella, and lied to prosecutors. According to the Boston Globe:

Shapiro said an autopsy of the girl, who became known worldwide as “Baby Doe,” showed no signs of trauma or broken bones. That, he said, contradicts prosecutors’ allegations — and Bond’s own account — of how McCarthy repeatedly struck the child’s midsection until her face was swollen and gray.

“There’s no forensic evidence and no DNA evidence” to link McCarthy to the crime, Shapiro said. “[Rachelle Bond] is far more likely to have killed Bella.”

McCarthy is due back in court on Feb. 16.

A person found dead in East Boston early Sunday is the city’s first homicide of 2016.

Around 1:36 a.m., police responded to a call for a person shot at 144 Falcon St. Officers found the unidentified male victim suffering from gunshot wounds. Boston EMS took the victim to the hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

Police have not yet identified the victim.

Anyone with information is asked to call BPD homicide detectives at 617-343-4470. Anonymous tipsters can call the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS, or text the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).  The Boston Police Department will stringently guard and protect the identities of all those who wish to help this investigation in an anonymous manner.