Both Defendants Claimed Mental Illness; Both Victims Attacked Without Provocation

 BOSTON, June 8, 2015—Two Suffolk Superior Court juries returned murder verdicts today in the unrelated homicides of Rashad Lesley-Barnes and Amy Lord, both attacked and stabbed to death without provocation, District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

Within minutes – and a few hundred feet – of one another, juries convicted JAHVON GOODWIN (D.O.B. 8/26/91) of second-degree murder in Lesley-Barnes’ 2012 homicide and EDWIN ALEMANY (D.O.B. 9/2/84) of Lord’s homicide a year later.

Both defendants had pursued mental health defenses, arguing that they were not criminally responsible for their actions, Conley said, but jurors rejected those claims.

“Aside from the brutality of the facts and the innocence of the victims, these two cases had something else in common,” Conley said. “Both defendants showed a distinct clarity of mind during and after their crimes.”

Alemany will be sentenced at 9:00 tomorrow morning. Goodwin will be sentenced at 2:00 on Wednesday afternoon.

During about a week of testimony, Assistant District Attorney David Fredette introduced evidence proving that Goodwin and Lesley-Barnes encountered one another on the Route 23 MBTA bus on Aug. 15, 2012. When the victim disembarked on Warren Street near Dudley station, the evidence showed, Goodwin followed him off the bus. Outside, Goodwin repeatedly stabbed Lesley-Barnes, inflicting multiple fatal wounds.

“The tragic irony is that Mr. Lesley-Barnes was on his way to work at Brigham and Women’s Hospital,” Conley said. “Instead, he was rushed to Boston Medical Center, where he died of his injuries.”

In the aftermath of the brutal attack, Goodwin fled the scene on foot. The evidence showed he ran to a Greenville Street apartment where a family friend resided. He remained there for a time, changed his clothes, and then left.

Goodwin was identified as a suspect after Boston Police criminalists recovered his fingerprints on a pair of sunglasses left at the scene. MBTA public safety cameras captured Goodwin wearing those sunglasses.

Across the courthouse hall, jurors convicted Alemany of first-degree murder, kidnapping, armed carjacking, two counts of armed robbery, two counts of armed robbery while masked, stealing by confining, arson of a motor vehicle, and assault and battery in Lord’s July 23, 2013, stabbing death. Jurors acquitted Alemany of an additional count of armed assault with intent to rape.

Jurors also convicted him of attempted murder and assault and battery for an attack prior to Lord’s homicide and armed assault with intent to murder and aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon for an attack on a third victim after Lord’s homicide.

During about three weeks of trial, Chief Trial Counsel John Pappas proved that Alemany attacked a 22-year-old woman as she walked along Old Colony Avenue just before 5:00 on July 23, 2013. He beat her, knocked her to the ground, and dragged her into a parking lot, telling her that he would kill her before fleeing on foot.

Pappas proved that Alemany then attacked Lord as she left her Dorchester Street apartment at about 6:00 that same morning. He beat her, forced her into her Jeep Cherokee at knifepoint, and forced her to make a series of cash withdrawals at bank machines in South Boston and Dorchester. He then forced her to accompany him to Stony Brook Reservation in Hyde Park, where he stabbed her to death. He then drove the Jeep back to South Boston, where he set it on fire.

Finally, the evidence showed, Alemany rushed a third lone female victim as she entered her Gates Street home just after midnight on July 24, about 18 hours after Lord was killed. The evidence showed that Alemany stabbed her repeatedly but fled when she screamed and neighbors called 911. Alemany cut himself on the knife used in that attack and was arrested at Tufts Medical Center, where he – and, by chance, the last victim – sought treatment.

“We can never give a murder victim’s family what they truly want,” Conley said. “Their loved one is gone, taken from them forever. But we can do our solemn best to find justice on their behalf through painstaking investigation and prosecution. I hope Ms. Lord’s family and the surviving victims can take some small measure of satisfaction that this defendant will never hurt another woman again.”

Fredette was second-seated in the Goodwin trial by Assistant District Attorney Kathryn Leary of the DA’s Appellate Division. Timothy Munzert was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate.

Pappas was second-seated in the Alemany trial by Assistant District Attorney Zachary Hillman, also of the DA’s Appellate Division. Katherine Moran was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.