The Kickham Comment - Boston Criminal Attorney Blog

For anyone who has followed the “Mattapan Murder Trial” in Boston these past few weeks, otherwise known as the “Mattapan Massacre,” here is the first and most important question you need to ask: If you were a juror, would you believe the prosecution’s star witness, Kimani Washington?

For those who haven’t followed the case, a little background: In September 2010, in the Mattapan section of Boston, four people were shot to death and a fifth paralyzed from the neck down for life, in a robbery that involved illegal drugs. Among the dead were a 2 year-old boy and his mother. Police arrested three men in connection with the massacre: Two of them are on trial for the murders – named Dwayne Moore and Edward Washington. The third man involved in the crime, is a man by the name of Kimani Washington; he is a cousin of defendant Edward Washington. By the accounts of all who know him, even by his own account, Kimani Washington is one bad character: A career criminal who has committed crimes ranging from Massachusetts drug offenses, to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, to robbery. The prosecutor himself in this case has characterized him as a gangster, a thug and a thief. A lawyer for one of the defendants has termed Kimani Washington as a psychopath, and a “denizen of hell.”

Oh, one other thing: Kimani Washington is the prosecution’s star witness. You see, it seems that “Kimani” struck a deal with prosecutors, where he agreed to plead guilty to the Massachusetts robbery charge, in exchange for the prosecution not charging him with murder in this case, not trying him on the robbery charge, and recommending to the judge in the case that he serve 16-18 years in prison for the robbery count. (Washington claims he took part in the robbery, but left the scene before the shootings took place.) Oh, and a few other salient facts for you to consider: In addition to the agreement not to charge him with murder, it seems the esteemed Mr. Washington extracted a few other perks to sweeten the deal for himself – including $5,000 in assistance to his mother to relocate her residence to an undisclosed location, so that none of Washington’s enemies can easily find her to retaliate against Washington; an additional promise of assistance to his mother in securing government-subsidized Section 8 housing vouchers, and to top it off, an promise from prosecutors that Washington will serve his time in an out-of-state prison, where no ‘associates’ of his from Boston will be housed, thus securing his safety in prison.

This is a horrible story about a crime which, if true, is almost beyond comprehension.

One Eldrick D. Broom, 27, pleaded guilty this past week in Suffolk Superior Court to charges of the November 21 2011 aggravated rape and first-degree murder of Ms. Rosana Camilo, a mother of three who came to Boston so that her young son could receive medical care here. According to prosecutors, Camilo’s 16-year-old daughter found her mother’s lifeless and partially nude body in a rear bedroom of the apartment that Ms. Camilo lived in on Fairlawn Avenue, Boston. Broom was apprehended after an investigation produced DNA evidence linking him to the rape and murder, and he was ordered held without bail. But according to police investigators, that’s not how Broom was dealt with by the courts previously.

Broom was reportedly arrested in August on charges of assault and battery, after he was accused of beating up his pregnant girlfriend, who also lived in an apartment near where Camilo lived, according to police. He pleaded not guilty to that charge, and was free on personal recognizance when Ms. Camilo was murdered. Approximately a week after Ms. Camilo’s murder, Broom was also arrested in Brookline, this time on charges of open and gross lewdness and disorderly behavior after he allegedly urinated in public, according to court records. He was also released following that charge.