Juvenile Crimes

December 31, 2010

Brockton Man Charged with 2008 Massachusetts Murder of Teenager at Baby Shower

20-year-old Darryene Ware, a Brockton resident, was arraigned on Thursday for Massachusetts murder. He is accused of fatally shooting 16-year-old Chantel Matiyosus as she was leaving a baby shower in 2008. According to police. Ware and a number of other people who call themselves “D Block” started shooting at the partygoers.

He was reportedly at odds with one of the shower attendees. Prosecutors say that Ware was aiming at Matiyosus’s boyfriend and that, according to a witness, prior to the shooting Ware organized a meeting to plan the assault. Matiyosus, who sustained bullet wounds to the abdomen and head, was pronounced dead at Brockton hospital. Another victim, a male, sustained a leg injury, while another female, age 14, was shot in the wrist.

Ware has been ordered held without bail. He has prior convictions for witness intimidation and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

It was just on New Year’s Day 2008 that Ware’s brother, 19-year-old Markeen Starks, was fatally stabbed. Emmanuel Okoro, then 15, has been convicted of Starks’ Massachusetts second-degree murder. Witnesses say the two males got into a disagreement outside a family party and that is when Starks sustained fatal stab wounds to the neck, chest, shoulders, and face. Okoro will be eligible for parole in 15 years.

Mother of murder victim Chantel Matiyosus says suspect ‘let hate overcome everything’, Patriot Ledger, December 31, 2010
Brockton teen convicted of slaying, Boston Herald, December 30, 2010
Brockton teen shot to death, Wicked Local, April 27, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Massachusetts General Laws

Murder, Justia Continue reading

December 8, 2010

Attorney Sam’s Take: Do Massachusetts Bullying, Shootings And Murder Cases Negate Stats On Juvenile Justice?

by Altman & Altman

I really hate to throw a damper on a celebration. Recently, the Boston Globe touted the good news that Massachusetts criminal and child welfare caseloads in the state’s juvenile courts have fallen sharply over the past three year. According to these statistics, economic turmoil that has placed enormous strain on many families has failed to yield more negative results and the dramatic decline is confounding social workers, lawyers, and child and family advocates.

I am not really so counfounded.

Of course, as soon as such news comes out, the powers that be begin patting themselves on the back for a job well done. After all, when success is in the air, everyone grasps at it as if it were the beloved child of their own hard work. Failure, on the other hand, remains an orphan, spawned by “them”…whomever “they” are.

Massachusetts juvenile courts handle three major categories of cases. The most common are delinquency cases. They deal with criminal offenders under the age of 17. Juvenile judges also hear petitions involving abused or neglected children, and review cases involving youth who are in trouble at school or home or regularly running away. Apparently, since 2007,the number of such matters in juvenile court has decreased.

So I guess kids lucky enough to live in the Commonwealth have little to be afraid of, right? After all, that would be well timed given the onslaught of cases which is likely to soon deluge the courts due to Massachusetts’ new bullying law.

But I digress. We were talking about the recent past, not the near future.
Continue reading

October 11, 2010

Attorney Sam’s Take: Bullying, The Law And Me

by Altman & Altman

Given how this country was wrestled from the American Indian so long ago, it seems appropriate to return to the topic of bullying today on Columbus Day.

As you know, schools are back in session. This subject has hit the headlines anew.

If you are you waiting to hear that the efforts of our criminal justice leaders last year have paid off and so the situation is improved…I am sorry that I will have to disappoint you.

It didn’t. It hasn’t.

Perhaps this year, if we follow the same path as last year, we can impose the death penalty or bring back the stockades to battle the problem…!

While, regrettably, my responsibilities to clients made it impossible to live up to my blogging duties (sorry about that) last week, my opinions and I have still been around.

Particularly on the subject of bullying.

As you know, I have been rather critical of our political/law enforcement approach to the problem. Some people, after either seeing my recent television appearance , or the October 11th issue of Newsweek Magazine, in which I was quoted on the subject, may walk away with the idea that I am simply in favor of bullying..

I’m not, by the way.
Continue reading

August 4, 2010

Roxbury MA Homicide Of Child Re-lived In Gun Trial Against Mother.

by Altman & Altman

One thing that you get enough of as a Boston criminal lawyer is human drama. An example is the 10-year-old boy who accidentally fatally shot his cousin in 2007 in Roxbury. He has now testified at the trial of the boy’s mother, who is now facing an involuntary manslaughter charge for not properly storing the gun used in the shooting.

At the time of the incident, he was 7 years old.

The boy began his testimony with smiles…but that soon changed as he recalled the day at issue.

He recounted that he had been watching TV with Liquarry J., 8, (hereinafter, the “Deceased”) when the Deceased showed him the gun that he said belonged to his teenaged half-brother .

“I asked him if there were bullets in the gun. He said, ‘No,'” the boy said.

“I did it by accident,” he said.
Continue reading

August 3, 2010

Cohasset MA Mother And Son Charged Giving Alcohol To Juveniles – A Boston Criminal Attorney’s View

by Altman & Altman

Here is another one in a series of people being prosecuted for having parties wherein juveniles are allegedly given alcohol. As mentioned last week, ’tis the season apparently.

Specifically, Elizabeth M., 50, and her son Taylor, 18, of Cohasset ( hereinafter, collectively, the “Defendants”) now face charges in Quincy District Court. They have pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges that they hosted an underage drinking party that drew dozens of teenagers to their home on Saturday night. Her charges include furnishing alcohol to minors under the ”social host law,” keeping a disorderly house, and disturbing the peace. He faces charges of furnishing alcohol to minors and being a minor in possession of alcohol.

Both were ordered to abstain from drugs and alcohol and undergo in-home sobriety testing, while they wait for trial.
Continue reading

August 2, 2010

MA Bullying Victim’s Dad Suggests Leniency In Sentencing Of Students

by Altman & Altman

Here is something a Boston Criminal Lawyer does not see every day. The father of a tragically deceased daughter, who’s death the Commonwealth is looking use as a tool of political expediency, is showing the compassion.

You remember the word “compassion”, don’t you? It is the word I used when discussing the tragedy and the problem of bullying in the first place.

Yes, I am referring to the father of the late Phoebe Prince, who committed suicide earlier this year. The local prosecutor decided to blame the death on local bullies and take the extra step of indicting the kids. Now, with Ms. Prince dead, other potential reasons for the suicide coming to light, her father, unlike the “cool heads” of law enforcement, is said to be seeking “justice, not vengeance”.

Jeremy Prince, the father, in an interview with the online publication slate.com, said he would be willing to ask a judge for leniency if his daughter’s alleged tormentors expressed their remorse in open court.
Continue reading

July 28, 2010

MA Couple Are Charged With Giving Alcohol To Juvenile After Deadly Traffic Accident

by Altman & Altman

Well, we began this week on the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog discussing crimes that occur in the summer. Yesterday, I was reminded of a companion crime to drunk driving and too much partying.

Two Palmer residents now face criminal charges that they supplied alcohol to a 17-year-old boy who later died in a dirt bike accident.

For those of you who are not sure, the drinking age is currently 21.

Police say 45-year-old Robin K. and 28-year-old Kenneth D. (hereinafter collectively, the “Defendants”) will be summoned to appear in court on charges of procuring alcohol for a minor.

Detective Sgt. Scott Haley told the Republican newspaper of Springfield that
the teenager, Erik N. (hereinafter, the “Deceased”), drank alcohol during a bonfire in April at the apartment complex where the Defendants live.
Continue reading

July 22, 2010

Massachusetts Bullying Indictments And Legislation Controversy Are Revisited In New Reports

by Altman & Altman

Gee, it seems like only yesterday that this Boston criminal defense attorney was going against the grain and calling the indictment of six kids from South Hadley a senseless exercise of political grandstanding…or words to that effect. Don’t believe that I saw what everybody else was heralding as “heroic” as folly? Check out my postings since January as well as my comments on the equally “heroic” legislation on both the blog and Fox25!

Now, a couple of developments have some people reconsidering the events.

When 15-year-old Phoebe Prince committed suicide in January, six fellow South Hadley students were blamed for relentlessly bullying her. It was an easy fix for SuperDA Elizabeth Scheibel – indict them all and ruin their lives.

Whoops!

A new report shows there may have been factors other than bullying that led to the death of the South Hadley student.

Court documents, recently obtained by Emily Bazelon of the online magazine Slate, contain police interviews with Phoebe’s mother, classmates, teachers and administrators that tell a different story; one that suggests the teen’s troubles extended beyond the halls of South Hadley High.
Continue reading

June 11, 2010

A Boston Criminal Defense Attorney’s View Of Knowledge And Guilt In The Criminal Justice System

by Altman & Altman

As a Boston criminal defense attorney, there is an oft-said and ill-fated sentence claimed by clients. It reads, “…but I didn’t know that was illegal!”

Unfortunately, such lack of knowledge does not usually matter. They really mean it when they say “ignorance of the law is no excuse”. Further, there are times when ignorance of the facts is basically irrelevent.

A prime example of the latter is the case of statutory rape. “But I didn’t know she was just shy of her thirteenth birthday…she told me she was twenty-five” is not going to be a viable defense.

Another example is something that a psychiatrist who teaches at Harvard Medical School (clearly not an ignorant man by any estimation, yet, hereinafter, the “Defendant”) said this week about the trouble in which he has now found himself.

He had been hosting a graduation party in New Hampshire. He has released a statement that he didn’t know that there were students drinking at the high school graduation party .

Apparently, however, there were.
Continue reading

May 12, 2010

Nine Boston Youths Are Charged With Assault And Battery In Bullying Attack Of Disabled Teen

by Altman & Altman

In the Boston area, nine young men, ages ranging from 15 to 21 are now in need of criminal defense attorneys. They are accused of horribly assaulting a 19 year old developmentally disabled teenager in Dorchester.

They left him bloodied and screaming for help, the prosecutor said.

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley issued the statement that ”A crime like this just shocks the conscience…It’s obscene.”

The scene of yesterday’s arraignments was a familiar one. The court read the charges, the prosecutor filled in the blanks, adding the detail and commentary about the allegations and the defense attorneys denied all guilt for their clients who were basically “good kids”.

As is often the case in such matters, there are differing views of what happened. While the defendant is not required to give his this early, or, actually, at all, there are claims that some of the nine defendants were actually trying to help the victim, not attack him.

The attack came to the attention of law enforcement when police were called by a man who apparently witnessed it shortly before 5:00 PM on Monday. His attention was drawn to it when he was working in his back yard and heard a “God-awful scream”.
Continue reading