BOSTON, Dec. 19, 2014—A Suffolk Superior Court Jury has convicted a former Mattapan man of all charges in the unprovoked murders of Shakora Gaines, Chantal Palmer, and Anthony Peoples in Dorchester, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

Jurors convicted KERON PIERRE (D.O.B. 11/26/85) of three counts of first-degree murder, finding that he acted with extreme atrocity or cruelty in all three slayings and with deliberate premeditation in Palmer’s killing. Jurors also convicted him of armed assault with intent to murder for shooting at a fourth occupant of the car, a young woman who escaped with her life – but watched her best friends die.

Pierre faces life in prison without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. Members of the victims’ families, who attended every day of trial, are expected to address the court at that time.

“Like most outdoor shootings, this case came to us with no fingerprints and no DNA to lead us to a suspect,” Conley said. “It depended on the testimony of witnesses who could tell us what they saw, what they heard, and what they knew. Thanks to them, and to a team of outstanding Boston Police detectives and Suffolk prosecutors, we were able to prove a very challenging case beyond a reasonable doubt and find justice for three families who suffered the ultimate loss.”

Assistant District Attorney Mark Lee, deputy chief of the DA’s Homicide Unit, introduced evidence and testimony during nine days of trial to prove that Pierre opened fire on the group after they rebuffed him as they waited for a friend in a car on Mt. Ida Road in the early morning hours of March 29, 2009.

Evidence proved that the four victims, who lived in or had close ties to Brockton, had just left a fundraising party for a community event at 41 Mt. Ida Rd. and were in their car waiting for an additional friend. Pierre, who was with a group of his own friends, approached the car in a bid to speak to the young women inside. They were not interested.

Instead of walking away, Pierre reached to his waist, pulled a .40 caliber semiautomatic handgun, and began firing into the car. Gaines, 20, and Peoples, 19, were killed immediately; Palmer, 20, died of her injuries at Boston Medical Center. The fourth victim, 23 at the time, was miraculously unhurt though a bullet passed through her coat, mere inches from her body.

“They were innocent victims, terrified and trapped in a car as this defendant fired and fired and fired at them,” Conley said.

The very next day, Pierre asked his girlfriend’s mother to buy him a round-trip ticket to Trinidad and Tobago. She did, and he was not seen in Boston again until exhaustive efforts by Conley’s office and the US Department of Justice led to his extradition last year. He was arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on Aug. 26, 2013, some three and a half years after his indictment.

The man who allegedly drove Pierre from the scene, NIGEL A. NICHOLS (D.O.B. 11/5/85), is charged as an accessory after the fact to the murders. He will return to court on Jan. 15.

Katherine Moran is the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Pierre was represented by attorney John Tardiff.

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