Disturbing Testimony From Massacre In Boston
Four Executed During Robbery Including A 2-Year-Old Boy
Re-printed from a story at Boston.com on February 23rd 2012
Kimani Washington, one of them men accused of murdering four people including a 2-year-old child.
The sole survivor of the Mattapan massacre was lying in a bush, bleeding from a gunshot to the back of his head, when a Boston police officer found him. Marcus Hurd couldn’t move his legs or arms, but he was able to speak with stunned officers who found him amid a terrifying scene.
Hurd is expected to testify later in the Suffolk Superior Court murder trial of Edward Washington and Dwayne Moore, who are accused of murdering four people, including a 2-year-old boy in 2010. Both men have pleaded not guilty, and their defense attorneys have told jurors that a key prosecution witness cannot be believed.
Hurd has not yet been called as a witness, but Boston police Officer Joseph Brown testified this afternoon that he walked past the body of one murder victim and then heard his partner, Officer Sean Paul, shouting for help.
“I observed my partner holding what appeared to be a naked man, pulling him out of the bushes,” Brown testified. “I walked over and grabbed onto the victim’s arms and legs and assisted my partner in pulling him out of the bushes. It was dead weight. He was very limp."
The officers then discovered that Hurd could talk.
“I’m not going to lie to you,” Hurd told police, according to Brown. “I was here to buy weed."
Hurd told the officers that “two guys jumped him, took his clothes, took his car and shot him,’’ Brown testified.
The officer said Hurd described the car he was driving but could not describe his attackers.
Kimani Washington, 32, and his co-defendant Moore, 34, are accused of storming the home of Simba Martin, a 21-year-old drug dealer, on Sept. 28, 2010, to steal cash and drugs.
After the robbery, authorities allege, they killed Martin, along with his girlfriend, 21-year-old Eyanna Flonory, her son, 2-year-old Amanihotep Smith, and Levaughn Washum-Garrison, 22, who was sleeping on Martin’s couch that night. They also shot Hurd, 32, who is now paralyzed from the neck down.
Earlier today, the crowded courtroom overflowed with emotion as relatives testified about the four victims and police described the grisly murder scene. In graphic testimony that sent some relatives running from the courtroom, Officer Bernard Hicks testified that when he first arrived on the scene, he was only carrying his pistol.
Then he found the body of a naked man face-down on Wildwood Street. At that point, Hicks testified, he armed himself with his rifle and proceeded deeper into the crime scene, where he saw a cluster of officers tending to more victims on Woolson Street.
Hicks said he saw officers tending to a woman who was dressed only in pajamas. The woman was not moving, he testified.
Lying next to the woman was a 2-year-old little boy, who was still moving.
The child had what appeared to be burn marks on his arms.
“Are you OK?” Hicks asked the officer tending to the child.
But before he got the answer, Hicks said, he shifted back to his duties as a member of the department’s SWAT team, providing security for other officers and searching the area for a gunman.
“I had to pull myself away from that and focus on the job," Hicks testified.
The officer’s account of finding Flonory and her son sent some relatives running from the courtroom in tears.
With the jury out of the courtroom, Superior Court Judge Christine McEvoy warned the public watching the trial that they must keep their emotions under control, or leave the courtroom. She warned that even more graphic testimony would be forthcoming.
She also said defense attorneys John H. Cunha and John Amabile had already asked her multiple times to declare a mistrial, arguing that the emotional outbursts could make it difficult for jurors to focus on the defendants’ claims that they are wrongly accused of committing the quadruple murders.
Earlier today, Washum-Garrison’s mother, Patricia Washum-Bennett, described her son to the jury.
“He was a little lost and trying to figure out life." she said.
The key witness against the two men is expected to be Washington’s cousin, Kimani Washington, who met Moore in prison and participated in the robbery. Kimani Washington has agreed to a plea deal that would help him avoid life in prison and will testify against the two men, Edmond Zabin, the prosecutor, told jurors Thursday.
Zabin said Moore and Kimani Washington hatched a plan to rob Martin and recruited Edward Washington as the getaway driver.
Edward Washington and Moore have pleaded not guilty. Their defense attorneys said in their opening statements that Kimani Washington is lying to protect himself.
References:
Boston.com, Officer Describes Finding Survivor Of Mattapan Massacre
New England Cable News, Drama Continues At Mattapan Massacre Trial
CBS Boston/WBZ 1030,Street Code Under Microscope At Mattapan Massacre Trial
Re-printed from a story at Boston.com on February 23rd 2012
Kimani Washington, one of them men accused of murdering four people including a 2-year-old child.
The sole survivor of the Mattapan massacre was lying in a bush, bleeding from a gunshot to the back of his head, when a Boston police officer found him. Marcus Hurd couldn’t move his legs or arms, but he was able to speak with stunned officers who found him amid a terrifying scene.
Hurd is expected to testify later in the Suffolk Superior Court murder trial of Edward Washington and Dwayne Moore, who are accused of murdering four people, including a 2-year-old boy in 2010. Both men have pleaded not guilty, and their defense attorneys have told jurors that a key prosecution witness cannot be believed.
Hurd has not yet been called as a witness, but Boston police Officer Joseph Brown testified this afternoon that he walked past the body of one murder victim and then heard his partner, Officer Sean Paul, shouting for help.
“I observed my partner holding what appeared to be a naked man, pulling him out of the bushes,” Brown testified. “I walked over and grabbed onto the victim’s arms and legs and assisted my partner in pulling him out of the bushes. It was dead weight. He was very limp."
The officers then discovered that Hurd could talk.
“I’m not going to lie to you,” Hurd told police, according to Brown. “I was here to buy weed."
Hurd told the officers that “two guys jumped him, took his clothes, took his car and shot him,’’ Brown testified.
The officer said Hurd described the car he was driving but could not describe his attackers.
Kimani Washington, 32, and his co-defendant Moore, 34, are accused of storming the home of Simba Martin, a 21-year-old drug dealer, on Sept. 28, 2010, to steal cash and drugs.
After the robbery, authorities allege, they killed Martin, along with his girlfriend, 21-year-old Eyanna Flonory, her son, 2-year-old Amanihotep Smith, and Levaughn Washum-Garrison, 22, who was sleeping on Martin’s couch that night. They also shot Hurd, 32, who is now paralyzed from the neck down.
Earlier today, the crowded courtroom overflowed with emotion as relatives testified about the four victims and police described the grisly murder scene. In graphic testimony that sent some relatives running from the courtroom, Officer Bernard Hicks testified that when he first arrived on the scene, he was only carrying his pistol.
Then he found the body of a naked man face-down on Wildwood Street. At that point, Hicks testified, he armed himself with his rifle and proceeded deeper into the crime scene, where he saw a cluster of officers tending to more victims on Woolson Street.
Hicks said he saw officers tending to a woman who was dressed only in pajamas. The woman was not moving, he testified.
Lying next to the woman was a 2-year-old little boy, who was still moving.
The child had what appeared to be burn marks on his arms.
“Are you OK?” Hicks asked the officer tending to the child.
But before he got the answer, Hicks said, he shifted back to his duties as a member of the department’s SWAT team, providing security for other officers and searching the area for a gunman.
“I had to pull myself away from that and focus on the job," Hicks testified.
The officer’s account of finding Flonory and her son sent some relatives running from the courtroom in tears.
With the jury out of the courtroom, Superior Court Judge Christine McEvoy warned the public watching the trial that they must keep their emotions under control, or leave the courtroom. She warned that even more graphic testimony would be forthcoming.
She also said defense attorneys John H. Cunha and John Amabile had already asked her multiple times to declare a mistrial, arguing that the emotional outbursts could make it difficult for jurors to focus on the defendants’ claims that they are wrongly accused of committing the quadruple murders.
Earlier today, Washum-Garrison’s mother, Patricia Washum-Bennett, described her son to the jury.
“He was a little lost and trying to figure out life." she said.
The key witness against the two men is expected to be Washington’s cousin, Kimani Washington, who met Moore in prison and participated in the robbery. Kimani Washington has agreed to a plea deal that would help him avoid life in prison and will testify against the two men, Edmond Zabin, the prosecutor, told jurors Thursday.
Zabin said Moore and Kimani Washington hatched a plan to rob Martin and recruited Edward Washington as the getaway driver.
Edward Washington and Moore have pleaded not guilty. Their defense attorneys said in their opening statements that Kimani Washington is lying to protect himself.
References:
Boston.com, Officer Describes Finding Survivor Of Mattapan Massacre
New England Cable News, Drama Continues At Mattapan Massacre Trial
CBS Boston/WBZ 1030,Street Code Under Microscope At Mattapan Massacre Trial
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