BOSTON, March 6, 2015—The man who murdered 15-year-old Germaine Rucker in an unprovoked attack will not receive a new trial, a Superior Court judge ruled today, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

In his decision, Judge Jeffrey Locke denied a new trial for KENTEL WEAVER (D.O.B. 7/29/87), formerly of Roxbury, who was convicted in 2006 of first-degree murder for fatally shooting Rucker on Wendover Street on Aug. 10, 2003.

In his motion for a new trial, Weaver, who was 16 years old at the time of the murder, argues that his trial attorney was ineffective when he failed to introduce expert testimony that Weaver claims would indicate that his confession to Boston Police detectives was coerced by his mother. Locke today stated that the trial attorney acted reasonably when he made a strategic decision not to present expert testimony on the issue based on legal decisions available at that time.

“Effective assistance of counsel is not measured by trial counsel’s willingness to indulge every available procedure no matter how futile, and failing to pursue a futile tactic does not amount to constitutional ineffectiveness,” Locke wrote.

The evidence showed that Weaver’s mother implored him to tell detectives the truth out of concern for his soul and prayed over him along with other family members as she questioned him about his involvement in the murder. Weaver argued in his latest motion that he was not aware that he could refuse his mother’s instructions to tell speak with police. Locke, however, found that testimony established that Weaver had no cognitive limitations that would make him more susceptible to a parent’s influence than the typical teenager.

“Parents routinely instruct, and at times harangue, their children in daily life activities, whether they involve homework or household chores, or in matters of morality and religion. It is quintessentially the function of a parent to nurture, raise, and guide their child into maturity, and the manner in which a parent performs this duty is generally not considered coercive,” Locke wrote.

During several days of testimony before a Suffolk Superior Court jury, prosecutors proved that Weaver was one of a group of youths who took part in an unprovoked attack on the 15-year-old victim, who was riding his bike alone and carrying a bag of necklaces that he selling. After the group knocked Rucker to the ground, beat him, and stole the bag he was carrying, Weaver shot Rucker twice in the head.

Witness testimony proved that the shooter dropped a distinctive baseball hat as he fled; that hat was recovered and found to match one Weaver was wearing during a prior arrest and was found also linked to the defendant through DNA testing.

Jurors convicted Weaver of first-degree murder and he received the mandatory sentence for that offense of life without the possibility of parole. However, the United States Supreme Court in 2012 issued a decision ruling the automatic imposition of such a sentence on juveniles unconstitutional and the Supreme Judicial Court the following year issued a decision requiring that juvenile killers have the opportunity to seek parole. Today’s decision does not impact Weaver’s right to do so.

Assistant District Attorney John Pappas, now the DA’s Chief Trial Counsel, prosecuted the case at trial. Assistant District Attorney Jack Zanini, chief of the DA’s Appellate Unit, represented the Commonwealth on the motion for a new trial.

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