A Dorchester man today admitted to his role in the shooting death of Charles Cantave, a 36-year-old Brockton mechanic with whom the defendant had argued over a used engine Cantave installed several months earlier, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

MARIO BURNS (D.O.B. 10/5/72) pleaded guilty to the crime of manslaughter just one day after his murder trial began in Suffolk Superior Court. Judge Christine McEvoy sentenced him to a term of 15 years in state prison, the sentence jointly recommended by prosecutors and defense counsel after Burns offered to admit his guilt and forego any appellate claims.

Burns did not fire the bullet that killed Cantave, prosecutors said. The man who did – CORNELIUS EVANS (D.O.B. 6/19/75) – is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty last year to second-degree murder.
Had the case continued before the jury, prosecutors would have sought to prove with circumstantial evidence that Burns knew Evans intended to murder Cantave, rather than merely threaten him, on March 29, 2010.

Prosecutors maintain that Burns was angry with Cantave over an engine that he’d installed in Burns’ wife’s car. That sale led to a small claims action, which alleged that Cantave had knowingly supplied her with a faulty engine. Burns, his wife, and Cantave were present at Dorchester District Court in connection with that case just before Burns picked up Evans.

When the two men spotted Cantave outside after the hearing, Burns pointed him out. Evans then left Burns’ vehicle and shot Cantave dead. When he returned to the vehicle afterward, the two men acted together to discard the murder weapon and some of Evans’ clothes. They were stopped a short time later by Boston Police, who had received Burns’ license plate from a witness.

Katherine Moran was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Burns was represented by attorney Bernard Grossberg.