A 17-YEAR-OLD was held without bail yesterday after being charged with the first-degree murder of a native of the Aran Islands who was shot in Boston last October during an attempted robbery.
Prosecutor Ian Polumbaum said John Graham was 16 years old when he shot 36-year-old Ciarán Conneely outside Mr Conneely’s apartment building in Dorchester.
Mr Conneely, who moved to Boston from Inis Meáin 12 years ago, had attended an Irish heritage festival, walked home from a nearby bar and was accosted just before entering his building. He was shot once in the chest, and police theorise he may have resisted a robbery after having been robbed and slashed with a razor a month before.
Mr Polumbaum said the break in the case came a few weeks after Mr Conneely’s murder when two young men were shot and wounded during an attempted robbery in another section of Dorchester.
He said ballistics tests showed the bullets taken from those two victims matched the one that killed Mr Conneely and were fired from the same gun.
Mr Polumbaum said witnesses told police Mr Graham made statements that linked him to the murder of Mr Conneely and the shootings of the two men who survived.
He said there was video surveillance evidence linking him to the shootings of the two men.
Mr Graham’s lawyer, Randy Gioia, kept his client outside the courtroom and out of public view, telling magistrate Gary Wilson that neither of the two wounded men had identified Mr Graham.
He said the issue of identification would be key to the case and police have not produced the murder weapon. He said Mr Graham denies shooting or robbing anyone.
Mr Conneely’s sister, Deirdre, who lives in Boston, craned her neck to catch a glimpse of the defendant, as did friends of Mr Conneely, some of them co-workers who gave up a day’s wages to attend the court hearing in support of the family.
Mr Graham’s father sat in the back of the courtroom but declined comment.
A trial date of January 7th, 2013, was scheduled.