BOSTON, Dec. 23, 2014—The man who murdered Shakora Gaines, Chantal Palmer, and Anthony Peoples five years ago was sentenced to three life sentences today, with two of those terms to be served back-to-back, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

At today’s sentencing for KERON PIERRE (D.O.B. 11/26/85), Assistant District Attorney Mark T. Lee recommended a 19- to 20-year prison term for the attempted murder of a 23-year-old who miraculously survived the defendant’s unprovoked attack, followed by three consecutive life terms for the murder victims who, he said, were “far closer to children than to adults.”

Shakora Gaines

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Locke imposed the mandatory life term without the possibility of parole on each of Pierre’s three first-degree murder convictions, ordering the sentences for Peoples’ and Gaines’ murders to be served concurrent with one another and from and after the sentence for Palmer’s murder. Locke additionally imposed an eight- to 10-year sentence for shooting at – but missing – the surviving victim.

Jurors last week convicted Pierre of all three murders under the theory of extreme atrocity or cruelty, but convicted him of Palmer’s murder under the additional theory of deliberate premeditation. Evidence at trial proved that Pierre opened fire on the group after they spurned his attempts to talk to them outside a late-night house party to raise funds for an annual community event.

“As chilling as they are, the facts of this case are only made worse when we consider the apparent motive,” Conley said. “Most people rebuffed in their advances would walk away. Some might even be angry. But this defendant fired nine rounds into a car full of strangers, killing three and very nearly killing a fourth. It’s hard to imagine a more callous disregard for human life.”

Prior to sentencing, the court heard eight statements from relatives who described the impact of the murders on their lives and families.

Among those relatives was Gaines’ mother, who recalled “a sweet girl who always had a big smile on her face” and planned to become a registered nurse. From the witness stand, she summoned the strength to offer a prayer for the man who murdered her daughter.

“On behalf of Shakora Gaines and our family, Keron Pierre, we forgive you and may God have mercy on your soul.”

Chantal Palmer

Others were not so forgiving. Peoples’ mother, for example, blasted Pierre’s flight shortly after the murders to Trinidad and Tobago, where he desperately fought extradition for years.

“For five years, Mr. Pierre delayed our grieving process,” she said, while Peoples’ aunt expressed a wish that “the gunshots constantly ring in Keron Pierre’s ears as they do in mine, as if I were there that night.”

In the early morning hours of March 29, 2009, the four victims, who lived in or had close ties to Brockton, had just left 41 Mt. Ida Rd. and were in their car waiting for an additional friend. Pierre, who was with a group of his own, approached the car in a bid to speak to the young women inside. They said they weren’t interested.

In response, Pierre reached to his waist, pulled a .40 caliber semiautomatic handgun, and began firing into the car. Gaines, 20, and Peoples, 19, were killed immediately; Palmer, 20, died of her injuries at Boston Medical Center. The fourth victim, 23 at the time, was miraculously unhurt though a bullet passed through her coat, mere inches from her body.

The very next day, Pierre asked his girlfriend’s mother to buy him a round-trip ticket to Trinidad and Tobago. She did, and he was not seen in Boston again until exhaustive efforts by Conley’s office and the US Department of Justice led to his extradition last year. He was arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on Aug. 26, 2013, some three and a half years after his indictment.

The man who allegedly drove Pierre from the scene, NIGEL A. NICHOLS (D.O.B. 11/5/85), is charged as an accessory after the fact to the murders. He will

Anthony Peoples

return to court on Jan. 15.

Katherine Moran was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Pierre was represented by attorney John Tardiff.

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