Mattapan massacre
Our Pick
Congregations wrestle with results of Mattapan trial
It had been a painful week in Mattapan, and as the community gathered at local churches Sunday, the talk was all about the verdict. And the lack thereof. (By Billy Baker and Alexander C. Kaufman)
Yvonne Abraham
Mattapan verdict shows jury system works
by Yvonne Abraham
Jury deliberations in the Mattapan massacre trial were not pretty. From what we’ve learned since Thursday, it’s clear that the men and women deciding the fates of two accused murderers were fully human.
Leon Neyfakh
The truth about the ‘code of the street’
by Leon Neyfakh
“I live by the code, I die by the code.” That was how Marcus Hurd professed to feel about what happened in Mattapan on the night that left him paralyzed from a gunshot to the head, and ended with four others dead, including Hurd’s drug dealer, a young mother, and her two-year-old son.
Editorial
For families of Mattapan victims, justice has to wait for retrial
CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS can be hard to get even for the grisliest of crimes. Jurors from many urban neighborhoods bring a level of suspicion of police tactics. Cases depend on deeply problematic witnesses.
BRIAN MCGRORY
A mystery on the side
by Brian McGrory
Within the drama of Thursday’s acquittal of one suspect and the hung jury on alleged gunman Dwayne Moore in the quadruple murders in Mattapan, a legal minidrama spilled from the jury room at Suffolk Superior Court to the judge’s bench- one that is equal parts unusual and, to many, infuriating.
Analysis
State hampered by reliance on an unsavory witness
In too many ways, court observers say, it was a prosecutor’s nightmare: a morally reprehensible key witness, a possible misstep by police, and too little else to make up for the shortcomings, resulting in the implosion Thursday of the state’s case against the accused killers of four people in Mattapan. (By Sarah Schweitzer)
Graphic
The massacre in Mattapan
What prosecutors say happened the night of Sept. 28, 2010, in a Mattapan neighborhood.
Kevin Cullen
Leaving out emotion
by Kevin Cullen
As they seek to convict two men of a massacre that killed four people, including a 21-year-old woman and her 2-year-old son, Suffolk County prosecutors in Boston are being forced to airbrush out some of the horror that happened that humid night in September 2010.
Recent News
Photo galleries
4 dead, 1 injured in Mattapan shooting
Four people were killed, including a toddler, and a man was critically injured during an early morning shooting in Mattapan on Sept. 28. The toddler, 2-year-old Amanihotep Smith, died in the arms of his fatally wounded mother, Eyanna L. Flonory. Police believe the mayhem was the result of a drug deal gone bad.
Mattapan case headed to jury
Scenes from the courtroom.
Mattapan shooting victim testifies
Marcus Hurd, the sole survivor of the Mattapan massacre in which four people were killed, testified Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court.
Editor's picks
Mattapan jurors recount discord
by Brian R. Ballou and Maria Cramer
It got so tense that they began throwing their pencils and their notepads across the room. Some of the jurors cursed, glaring at the woman, the lone holdout who refused to convict Dwayne Moore of the murders.
In fury, families of the victims cry ‘No justice’
by Brian R. Ballou
Amid the sudden wailing, she simply stood and walked out.
Mattapan neighborhood stunned by jury’s decision in quadruple slaying case
by Akilah Johnson
Rage. Grief. Disbelief. Those emotions permeated a Mattapan neighborhood this afternoon as residents learned of the verdicts in the notorious massacre that claimed the lives of a toddler and three adults in 2010.
Mattapan jurors push for verdicts in slay case
by Maria Cramer and Brian R. Ballou
The Suffolk jury charged with deciding the case against two men accused in the 2010 Mattapan killings twice told a Superior Court Judge that it was deadlocked, but then voted unanimously to continue deliberating, a highly unusual decision, according to legal specialists.
Jury in Mattapan slayings still deadlocked
by Maria Cramer
After five full days of deliberations, the Suffolk jury charged with deciding the fate of two men accused in the 2010 Mattapan killings still has not rendered a verdict.
Deadlock continues in Mattapan murder case
by Maria Cramer
A Suffolk Superior Court jury will resume deliberations Wednesday in the Mattapan massacre trial, after members apparently failed today to convince a single holdout to agree with them on nine of the 19 charges facing two men in the case.
Mattapan jury reaches verdict on 10 of 19 charges
by Maria Cramer
The jury charged with deciding the case against two men accused in the 2010 Mattapan massacre has reached a verdict on 10 of the 19 charges they are weighing, but is deadlocked on the remaining nine, with one holdout on the remaining charges.
For mothers of the accused, a separate anguish
by Maria Cramer
Diann Moore stood on Washington Street, a block from the homeless shelter where she has been staying, and looked for the Silver Line bus that would take her to Suffolk Superior Courthouse.
Mattapan case headed to jury
by Maria Cramer
The defense called him a psychopath, a denizen of hell, the devil himself.

The prosecution cast him as a thug, a gangster, and a thief.
Mattapan murder trial turns to a missing video
by Maria Cramer
Video footage that captured a sport utility vehicle leaving the scene of one of the city’s worst homicides in recent history was erased before police could obtain copies of it, the lead detective in the September 2010 quadruple killings in Mattapan testified Thursday.
Mattapan witness says he survived by playing dead
by Maria Cramer
Naked but for his socks, Marcus Hurd obeyed the orders of the tall, thin gunman.
Marcus Hurd said he survived Mattapan massacre by playing dead
by Maria Cramer and Brian R. Ballou
Marcus Hurd said he is alive because he played dead.
Mattapan defense focuses on tipster
by Maria Cramer
The lead detective in the Mattapan massacre acknowledged on the witness stand today that police did not test a key prosecution witness for gunshot residue when he was caught driving an SUV stolen from one of the victims.
Bullet in Mattapan case matched to gun
by Brian R. Ballou
A bullet pulled from one of the victims of a quadruple killing in Mattapan was probably fired from a gun found inside the house of a key prosecution witness, a ballistics expert testified Monday.
Arrest made in court outburst
by Martin Finucane
A man who called the key prosecution witness in the case of a 2010 quadruple killing a snitch will be in court today on charges of witness intimidation.
Jurors see photos from quadruple homicide
by Brian R. Ballou and John R. Ellement
The crime happened more than a year ago in Mattapan, but yesterday the scene was brought before jurors - and the victims’ families - as prosecutors sought to recreate the horror of that bloody night.
Aunt testifies against accused killer
by Maria Cramer
Defiant and angry, the mother of the key witness in the case of a quadruple homicide in Mattapan told a Suffolk Superior Court jury yesterday that she did not feel safe testifying, despite an agreement she made with prosecutors to pay for her move from her longtime Boston home under the state’s witness protection program.
Testimony clashes in Mattapan killings
by Maria Cramer
The brother of the key prosecution witness in the case of a quadruple homicide in Mattapan said yesterday that he did not believe one of the men accused took part in the brutal killings.
Witness’s brother testifies in killings
by Maria Cramer
One of the big questions that came out of this week’s testimony from the key witness in a quadruple killing is how credible the jury would find him.
Key witness says he’s testifying to avoid life term
by Maria Cramer and John R. Ellement
The key witness in one of the worst homicide cases in Boston’s recent history acknowledged yesterday that he did not want to serve life in prison for the quadruple killing that took the lives of a mother and her 2-year-old son.
Editor's picks
Key witness hit by questioning
by Maria Cramer
Under aggressive cross-examination yesterday, the key witness in one of the worst homicide cases in recent Boston history admitted he lied to police repeatedly about the night of the killings, was a heavy drinker who had shot people, and had owned too many guns in his life “to keep track of.’’
Key witness testifies on Mattapan killings Key witness testifies on Mattapan killings
by Maria Cramer
When his friend told him he knew a drug dealer they could rob for cash and cocaine, Kimani Washington said, he was in.
Officer tells of toddler’s final moments
by Brian R. Ballou
Two-year-old Amanihotep Smith, mortally wounded, wiggled to break free of his dead mother’s clutch and fought hard to breathe, according to one of the first Boston police officers to arrive to the bloody Mattapan scene of a quadruple murder in 2010.
Emotional start for trial in deaths of 4
by Maria Cramer
The trial of two men accused of executing four people on a Mattapan street began yesterday with a preview of legal strategies and emotional arguments that drove the victims’ relatives to flee the courtroom, sobbing.
Jury selection in Mattapan murder trial completed
by Maria Cramer
A jury of 16 has been chosen in the Suffolk Superior Court trial of two men accused of murder in the killing of four people, including a boy, 2, in Mattapan in 2010.
Mattapan massacre trial starting
by Maria Cramer
No one should have survived. The shooters fired deliberately then fled, leaving all five victims, including a 2-year-old boy, to die on a Mattapan street.
Prosecutor takes stand in homicide case
by Brian R. Ballou
In an unusual twist in the case against two men accused of shooting five people, including a 2-year-old, in a brutal execution in Mattapan in 2010, the lead prosecutor in the case found himself on the witness stand yesterday to defend his handling of evidence.
Two Mattapan slay suspects seek dismissal
by Travis Andersen
Lawyers for two defendants slated to go on trial Monday in the shocking fatal shootings of four people, including a toddler, on a Mattapan street in 2010 are seeking a dismissal because authorities only recently turned over evidence from a witness, who police believe is unreliable, implicating someone else.
A suspect in 2010 Mattapan killings may get plea deal
by Maria Cramer
One of the three men implicated in the 2010 killings of four people on a Mattapan street, including a toddler, has agreed to plead guilty to the charges against him and testify against his codefendants, an agreement that could help him avoid decades in prison.
Murders of four in Mattapan grew out of a drug robbery, prosecutors say
by Milton J. Valencia and John R. Ellement
Authorities said today that the murders of four people in Mattapan -- including a two-year-old boy -- began with the robbery of a drug dealer but ended with the victims being marched through the neighborhood before each was shot multiple times.
Mourners fill Mattapan church for slain mother and son
by Milton J. Valencia and John R. Ellement
A young mother and her 2-year-old, slain last week in Mattapan in a crime that shook the city, lay together today in a pewter-colored casket as mourners gathered for a "home-going celebration" and wake.
Lives of violence, deaths of innocents
by Andrew Ryan, Meghan E. Irons, and Peter Schworm
The tuft of curls from his first haircut remains perfect after all these years, preserved in a plastic bag as a keepsake for a doting grandmother. Dorothy Haskins also saved tangible proof of the pain that, then as now, seized a city: a neatly folded newspaper from 1994 that screams: “Boy, 9 dies . . . Halloween gunfire tied to gang feud.’’
Jury selection in Mattapan murder trial completed
by Maria Cramer
A jury of 16 has been chosen in the Suffolk Superior Court trial of two men accused of murder in the killing of four people, including a boy, 2, in Mattapan in 2010.
Columnist
Spinning deadly lies
by Yvonne Abraham
We don’t yet know whether the awful morning of Sept. 28, 2010, went down the way Kimani Washington says it did.
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