Three men were held on $50,000 cash bail and a juvenile co-defendant was released to his parents yesterday after being charged with a vicious beating in Boston’s Theater District that left a 28-year-old man with permanent brain damage, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.
Assistant District Attorney John Lacey recommended that all four be held on the high bail following their arraignments for allegedly attacking a former South End resident on the morning of May 10, Mother’s Day, on Tremont Street during a robbery sparked by a chance encounter at a Chinatown restaurant.
Arraigned today in the Boston Municipal Court were:
1. JOHN BENOIT (D.O.B. 8/12/87), a.k.a. JOHNNY DANG, of Roxbury, represented by attorney Patrick Murphy;
2. JUMOKE MARSHALL (D.O.B. 7/27/87), a.k.a. JUMOKE ZION, of Roxbury, represented by attorney Henry Eaton; and
3. ERIC WALLACE (D.O.B. 9/14/90) of Everett, represented by attorney Paul Carrigan.
Judge Tracy-Lee Lyons ordered each of the three to return to court on Nov. 2.
A third defendant, a MALE JUVENILE who was 15 at the time of the incident and is now 16, was arraigned in the Boston Juvenile Court this afternoon. Lacey recommended that he be held on $50,000 cash bail as well, but Judge Paul Lewis released the youth and ordered him to return to court on Dec. 1 with attorney Scott Rankin.
All four are charged with mayhem, aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and unarmed robbery. The lead charge of mayhem carries a potential 20-year state prison term.
Lacey told the court that the defendants had been identified in the course of an extensive and ongoing probe by the Suffolk DA’s office and Boston Police detectives that had developed civilian witness statements, financial records, surveillance footage, and other evidence linking them to the violent incident.
Lacey said that the evidence thus far suggests that the defendants crossed paths with the victim and another man at the New Golden Gate restaurant in Chinatown at about 2:30 that morning. The other man’s identity remains unknown because the victim, who suffered brain damage during the attack, does not remember the events of that night.
Prosecutors allege that the victim and defendants were seated at the same table amidst the restaurant’s late-night crowd. The victim and his associate went out to smoke cigarettes, and in their absence the defendants allegedly ordered and consumed some food.
When the victim and his friend returned, the defendants allegedly demanded money to help pay the bill. The victim refused, having neither ordered nor eaten. Words were exchanged and the victim left the restaurant to avoid any further confrontation.
After paying the bill, the defendants allegedly followed the victim and the other man outside and surrounded them about a block away at the intersection of Beach and Tyler streets. Once again, they allegedly demanded money and once again, the victim refused it. It was at this point that Marshall told him to “just walk away,” Lacey said.
The victim did just that, Lacey said, but the defendants allegedly split up and followed them several blocks west to Tremont Street near the Stuart Street intersection. In front of a shuttered nightclub at 265 Tremont, the prosecutor said, the juvenile defendant struck the victim in the face, knocking him to the ground.
In the minutes that followed, the other assailants allegedly began to kick the victim and stomp on his head. When it was over, the victim had sustained multiple skull fractures and cracks to his eye sockets. His lower lip had been torn apart and his brain was bruised, swollen, and bleeding. His injuries left him with permanent brain damage and diminished cognitive abilities that limit his ability to form sentences and do simple math. He has since left Massachusetts to reside with family in another state.
Conley hailed the dogged, methodical investigation spearheaded by the Boston Police detectives and Suffolk prosecutors assigned to the case, but lamented the horrible violence visited upon the victim by the assailants.
“His life was changed in an instant,” Conley said. “This could have happened to you or me or anyone with the bad luck to be seated next to these men in a crowded restaurant. We go into this case knowing that no result will undo the damage this man suffered that night.”
Investigators are extremely interested in speaking with the man who escaped the violence that night and with any witnesses to the attack itself. Anyone with information on the case is urged to call Boston Police District One detectives at 617-343-4571.
