Billie Marie Kee and her boyfriend, Kevin Thomas, were shot and stabbed to death in a “grisly” double murder that may have been related to a debt one of the killers allegedly owed, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office said today.

MICHAEL T. CORBIN (D.O.B. 11/10/70) and EARL FULGIAM (D.O.B. 4/14/80), both of Mattapan, were arraigned today in Suffolk Superior Court following their Dec. 21 indictments. Both are charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and armed robbery, along with additional firearms offenses stemming from the July 26, 2011, incident at the victims’ Hyde Park home.

At the request of Conley’s chief trial counsel, Assistant District Attorney John Pappas, Suffolk Superior Court Clerk Magistrate Gary Wilson ordered that both men remain held without bail.
Speaking in court today, Pappas revealed for the first time the level of violence inflicted upon the victims.

Boston Police responding to a pair of 911 calls at about midnight “made the grisly discovery of two victims – Billie Marie Kee, age 24, and Kevin Thomas, age 32,” Pappas said. “Both had sustained multiple traumatic injuries, having been stabbed and shot multiple times …. Readily apparent to investigators at the scene were implements used to inflict the multiple injuries on both victims.”

Found unharmed in the rear of the apartment was Kee’s 3-year-old son. That child is now living with other family members.

“The apartment was in total disarray,” Pappas said. “It was apparent that the perpetrators came looking for something.”

The investigation by Boston Police homicide detectives on the street and Suffolk prosecutors in the grand jury developed information that Thomas was well acquainted with both Corbin and Fulgiam and the three had known each other for years. In the weeks leading up to the murders, Pappas said, the defendants visited Thomas and a photo was taken depicting the three on a couch in front of a coffee table piled high with bundles of U.S. currency.

“On top of the social aspect, their relationship with each other also appears to have been rooted in the narcotics business,” Pappas told the court.

The day before the murders, Pappas continued, Thomas told a friend that he was planning to buy a car soon and intended to make the purchase with cash. In addition to that large quantity of cash, the prosecutor said, there was “marijuana and cocaine in or near [the victims’ apartment] on the date of the murders.”

Pappas also told the court that Corbin and Thomas had a conversation several hours before Thomas was slain in which the two discussed a debt.

“It is apparent from the nature of the conversation that Corbin owed money to Thomas,” Pappas said. “It is also apparent that Thomas was looking to get paid. The conversation included talk of Corbin agreeing to meet Thomas later that day.”

The investigation also developed significant forensic evidence, Pappas said, with a fingerprint matched to Corbin recovered from an appliance found next to Kee’s remains. The cord from that appliance had been severed and used to bind Thomas’ feet.

Fulgiam’s fingerprints, meanwhile, were recovered from a magazine within a 9mm semiautomatic handgun found near the scene.

“The 9mm that was recovered is the same 9mm that was used to shoot and kill both Billie Marie Kee and Kevin Thomas,” Pappas said.

Corbin and Fulgiam have been in custody since October 2011, when they were formally charged in West Roxbury District Court. Their indictments move the case to Suffolk Superior Court, where all Boston homicides are adjudicated.

Katherine Moran is the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Corbin is represented by attorney Jack Miller and Fulgiam by attorney William White. The case will return to court on Feb. 16.