BOSTON, Dec. 20, 2013—The man who brutally murdered Rosanna Camilo was sentenced to spend life in prison after family members today described their lives without the devoted mother.
Jurors deliberated for one day before finding ELDRICK BROOM (D.O.B. 4/7/84) guilty of aggravated rape and first-degree murder under both the theories of extreme atrocity and cruelty and felony murder. At the request of Assistant District Attorney Gretchen Lundgren of the DA’s Homicide Unit, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Locke imposed the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder of life without the possibility of parole. As aggravated rape was the felony requisite to the felony murder finding, Locke placed the conviction on file.
Rosanna Camillo, 34, was murdered in Boston, where she was seeking medical care for her young son. A former neighbor was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a Suffolk Superior Court jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated rape.
Lundgren presented evidence and testimony to prove that Broom, who was known to Camilo only as a neighbor, had gained access to the 34-year-old mother of three’s apartment on the afternoon of Nov. 21, 2011, and raped and killed her.
Camilo had lived in the Fairlawn Estates apartments in Mattapan as she sought medical care for her severely disabled son. Broom had lived inside the same building for several months and had recently moved to a different building within the same complex.
On the day of her murder, Camilo was waiting for a health care worker to come to her apartment. Broom gained entry to the apartment, where he raped Camilo and strangled her with such force that he crushed her larynx, the evidence showed. Camilo’s son, who was only 17-months-old at the time, was in his crib in an adjacent room.
Camilo’s 16-year-old daughter discovered her mother’s remains upon arriving home from school.
Broom initially told Boston Police homicide detectives that he did not know the victim. After DNA testing showed that his DNA profile was present on her remains, he changed his story and claimed that the two had a consensual sexual encounter the day prior to her murder.
Camilo’s siblings, husband, and two of her children delivered powerful victim impact statements in court.
“You took the most precious thing a human has, his mother. And you’ll never find a mother like that,” her husband said.
My life was the best life ever,” said her son, now 13. “That was the worst day of my life. It felt like the world was falling apart.”
Her daughter recalled the pain of her mother not being at her graduation.
“That empty seat in front of me, wishing she had come and said, ‘You did it. I’m so proud of you.’ But she didn’t. Without her my life has changed,” she said.
“Rosanna was a devoted mother who would have loved nothing more than to see her children grow and thrive. But that was ripped away from her in violent and horrific assault. Her murderer then left her disabled son to fend for himself in the next room, and left Rosanna’s body for her daughter to discover. Nothing can take away the horror that this family has endured, but hopefully today’s sentencing can bring them a measure of peace,” Conley said.
Katherine Moran was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Broom was represented by Norman Zalkind.
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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
