Nicholas Martinez | Homicide Watch Boston

Concepcion found guilty of South End murder

Gail Waterhouse — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 22:19:16 -0400

By Miharu Sugie

The third man involved in the 2012 murder of Nicholas Martinez in the South End was sentenced Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court. Raymond Concepcion of Hyde Park faces life in prison with the possibility of parole after a minimum of 20 years for first-degree murder, concurrent with a four to five-year term for his unlawful possession of a firearm.

Concepcion shot Martinez while he was in his car stopped at a red light in the South End. Concepcion then fled in a waiting car. As reported earlier, the other two people involved in the murder, Shakeem Johnson and Jaquan Hill, pleaded guilty last month and were sentenced to five years for their unlawful possession of a firearm and 12 to 14 years for manslaughter.

Nicholas Martinez

Assistant district attorney Jennifer Hickman suggested Concepcion be sentenced to 25 years with the possibility of parole, which is the maximum legally allowed for juveniles convicted of murder. Concepcion’s attorney, John Cunha, suggested 15 years in prison was an appropriate punishment. Judge Jeffrey Locke said in court he must consider the fact that Concepcion, now 18, was a juvenile in 2012.

The jury deliberated for less than a day, a speedy end to the two-week-long trial. As the jury announced their verdict, Concepcion kept his head down.

Pausing in front of Concepcion and Cunha, ADA Hickman read out loud a letter penned by Martinez’s girlfriend to those in the courtroom.

“I was no longer going to marry the man I loved, my best friend, and his family had lost him for good,” Hickman read.“There’s no day that goes by where I don’t think about him. My baby girl will have to grow up without him.”

Martinez’s mother delivered her impact statement amidst her tears.

“My Nico was all about the the family no matter what,” she said. “When I hear the ambulance, when I hear the cruisers… I think of Nico. Nico wasn’t supposed to be killed, Nico wasn’t supposed to die... This pain is never going to go away.”

Trial underway for teen accused of killing Nicholas Martinez

Gail Waterhouse — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 23:24:43 -0500

By Owen Pence

Raymond Concepcion, the teen accused of killing Nicholas Martinez in 2012, was coerced into the shooting by fellow gang members, Concepcion's defense attorney argued during opening statements at Concepcion's trial Wednesday morning in Suffolk County Superior Court.

Concepcion is accused of fatally shooting Martinez, 22-year-old Boston resident on Southampton Street in the South End one October evening while he was stopped in his car at a red light. Concepcion allegedly fired multiple shots into the vehicle, fatally wounding Martinez, who reportedly accelerated onto the gas pedal before crashing the car and falling unconscious.

Nicholas Martinez

Defense attorney John Cunha Jr. argued that Concepcion, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, had been coerced into executing Martinez. Concepcion, Cunha Jr. argued, lacked the cognitive skills and size to stand up for himself against an alleged Mission Hill gang member and his brother. Shakeem Johnson, 21, and Jaquan Hill, 19, who drove Concepcion’s getaway vehicle on the night of the murder, both had greater physical builds than Concepcion, Cunha Jr. argued.

In February, Hill and Johnson pleaded guilty to their roles in Martinez's murder and were sentenced to 12 to 14 years for manslaughter and five years for possession of a firearm without a license.

Cunha Jr. also alluded to an ultimatum Concepcion faced regarding Mission Hill gang members, in which his only way out of the gang was to acquire a gun and shoot someone. The defense argued that Concepcion possessed the brain function of a nine or 10-year-old. He had only lived in the United States for 2 1/2 years at the time of the murder and was in a depressive state, Cunha Jr. said, claiming Concepcion could not fend for himself against Johnson and Hill.

During the state's opening arguments, the assistant district attorney outlined the prosecution's plan to cite GPS records that they say prove Concepcion, in the car with Johnson and Hill, deliberately tracked Martinez on the night of Oct. 17, 2012, before killing him and fleeing the scene. The three men were arrested on a nearby highway and taken into custody approximately six minutes after the shots were fired, concluding a brief car chase amidst heavy rush hour traffic.

Two of the officers first on the scene, Christopher Bowers and Timothy Burns, testified Wednesday and described the night's proceedings.

Hill and Johnson disrupted the opening statements of their joint trial to plead guilty. Judge Jeffrey Locke estimated testimony in Concepcion’s trial may last up to two weeks.

Pair sentenced for murder of Roxbury man

Gail Waterhouse — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 22:36:28 -0500

By Alexandra Malloy

After pleading guilty the day before, Jaquan Hill and Shakeem Johnson were sentenced on Feb. 18 for the 2012 murder of Roxbury resident Nicholas Martinez.

Martinez was killed on Oct. 17 while he was in his car on Southampton Street. Raymond Concepcion, who was 15 at the time, allegedly fired into Martinez's car. The volley of shots killed Martinez.

Nicholas Martinez

Both Hill and Johnson admitted to knowing about the plan to kill Martinez, and helped Concepcion flee after the shooting. The 22 year-old was killed one day after he testified in a murder trial, incriminating an alleged Mission Hill gang member.

Hill and Johnson, 22 and 25 years old, respectively, were both sentenced 12 to 14 years in prison for manslaughter and up to five years for possession of a firearm without a license.

A member of the the Commonwealth's prosecution read a victim impact statement aloud to the court after one of Martinez’s family members spoke on the stand.

“I feel like my life has been on pause since that night and my happiness has been robbed from me,” the letter read.

Before announcing the sentences, Judge Elizabeth Fahey made a statement of her own in regard to the case.

“This is the only way this sorrow, that is so real, is going to end,” she said, referring to the gang connection.

2 plead guilty to 2012 murder of Nicholas Martinez

Gail Waterhouse — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 11:39:50 -0500

By Owen Pence and Alejandro Serrano

Two men pleaded guilty in court yesterday to killing Nicholas Martinez in 2012.

The change of plea for 22-year-old Jaquan Hill and 25-year-old Shakeem Johnson, came Wednesday after opening statements had already begun in their trial. Jury selection for the trial took more than a week to complete.

Martinez, 22, of Roxbury, was killed on Oct. 17 while he was in his car at a stoplight on Southampton Street in the South End. Raymond Concepcion, who was 15 at the time of the murder, allegedly got out of the nearby car he was in, firing into Martinez's car. Martinez was hit with multiple bullets and killed.

Concepcion allegedly then got into the car Hill and Johnson were in, and all three fled the scene. A Boston Police detective who heard the shots began chasing the car, and city and state police ended up stopping the car on I-93. According to police, Hill was in the driver's seat, Johnson in the passenger's seat and Concepcion in the back seat; Johnson was wearing a court-ordered GPS monitoring device.

In court Wednesday, Hill and Johnson, represented by defense attorneys Rosemary Scapicchio and Christopher Belezos, admitted they had known about the plan to kill Martinez and had helped Martinez’s shooter, Raymond Concepcion, escape the scene of the crime.

In their opening statement, the prosecution intimated that Concepcion had also been in the car prior to the shooting, and that Hill and Johnson were co-conspirators in the plan to murder Martinez. Martinez's death came just one day after he testified in a murder trial, incriminating an alleged Mission Hill gang member in the process.

The defense for Mr. Hill planned to argue against his affiliation with any such Mission Hill gangs, pointing to a clean criminal record and racial profiling on behalf of Boston police as reason for Hill’s innocence. Meanwhile Belezos, representing Johnson, admitted to Johnson’s gang affiliation and presence on the night of the murder, but argued he had no knowledge of Martinez’s testimony the day prior, and thus no reason to act in concert with Concepcion, the accused shooter.

After the conclusion of opening statements and a brief recess, Hill and Johnson changed their pleas to guilty, and jurors were discharged. They pleaded guilty to manslaughter and possession of a firearm without a license. The maximum sentence is 12-14 years for manslaughter and five years for possession of a firearm. The sentences can be served concurrently.

The men were set to be formally sentenced Thursday morning. A jury trial for Concepcion has been scheduled to begin Feb. 29 at 9 a.m. in Suffolk County Superior Court. Concepcion has also been charged with first-degree murder and unlicensed possession of a firearm.