BOSTON, May 30, 2013—A Chelsea man was ordered held without bail today at his arraignment for the shooting deaths of Zouaoui Dani-Elkebir and Karima El-Hakim earlier this month, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

State Police homicide detectives assigned to Conley’s office and Chelsea Police detectives arrested MAURICE MORRISON (D.O.B. 2/19/85) last night on two counts of murder stemming from the May 13 slayings. Dani-Elkebir, 52, and El-Hakim, 38, were found dead in Dani-Elkebir’s livery car on Crescent Avenue in the early morning hours of May 13.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Lee, deputy chief of the DA’s Homicide Unit, told Chelsea District Court Judge Marjory German that Chelsea Police responded to the area of 111 Crescent Ave. at about 4:00 that morning. They found both victims deceased in the front of the Ford LTD that Dani-Elkebir drove for work.

State and Chelsea police developed evidence that Morrison and El-Hakim may have had a prior relationship, “the exact nature of which remains under investigation,” Lee told the court, and that there had been some sort of conflict between the two during the past two weeks.

Beginning at about 3:00 on the morning of May 13, Lee said, Morrison began sending text messages to Dani-Elkebir, who was El-Hakim’s boyfriend and often had her in his car as he drove. The two men communicated by text message for about 45 minutes in what investigators believe was a ruse to get Dani-Elkebir to pick Morrison up.

Eventually, prosecutors say, Dani-Elkebir did just that. In the area of Parker Street and Crescent Avenue, Morrison shot both victims in the back of the head and fled from the car. The vehicle continued to roll down Crescent Avenue until it struck a building.

Morrison was identified as a suspect through the use of witness statements, video surveillance footage, cell phone records, physical evidence at the scene, and other evidence, prosecutors said.

Katherine Moran is the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Morrison is represented by attorney Stephen Weymouth. The case will return to court on July 9.

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