BOSTON, Feb. 16, 2017—The victim of a beating earlier this month in Chelsea has died of his injuries and his alleged assailant was apprehended in Ohio on murder charges yesterday, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, Chelsea Police Chief Brian Kyes, State Police Colonel Richard McKeon, and US Marshal for the Southern District of Ohio Peter C. Tobin said.

District Attorney Conley and Chief Kyes identified the victim as Melvin Cortes, 32, of Everett. Authorities say he was beaten by a man wielding a baseball bat on Congress Avenue in the evening hours of Feb. 5, suffering life-threatening injuries. The investigation into that beating led Chelsea Police and State troopers assigned to Conley’s office to seek and obtain a warrant for the arrest of Chelsea resident KAMAYA FARIKAFI (D.O.B. 12/7/93) in the days that followed.

Cortes succumbed to his injuries on Feb. 11, and the charges against Farifaki were upgraded to murder. During the intervening days, the State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section tracked him to Ohio, where they and US Marshals assigned to the Cincinnati office apprehended him yesterday. Farifaki is in custody at the Hamilton County Jail, where he will be held pending extradition proceedings to return him to Massachusetts to face charges.

The investigation into Cortes’ homicide remains active and anyone with information on it is urged to share that information with Chelsea Police at 617-466-4880 or the Suffolk County State Police Detective Unit at 617-727-8817.

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