“Sheldon Andrews is dead today not because of anything he did on August 27, 2008,” a Suffolk County prosecutor told jurors during closing arguments in the murder trial of RICHARD PARRIS. “He is dead today because of one person’s decisions, because of one person’s violent actions.”

Those actions, Assistant District Attorney Edward Krippendorf told a Superior Court jury, included stabbing the 27-year-old Andrews over and over in the head, arm, shoulder, chest, and leg near a cookout attended by the two men’s friends. Andrews’ heart and lung were pierced by those stab wounds, causing injuries that led to his death in a hospital bed hours later.

“The person who stabbed Sheldon Andrews is Richard Parris,” Krippendorf said, pointing at the defendant. “This person right here.”

Krippendorf told the court that Andrews was talking to Parris when the two became engaged in a scuffle.

“One minute he’s fine,” Krippendorf said of the victim. “The next minute, he’s scuffling with this person right here.”

Within moments, Andrews allegedly told a witness, “I think he got me,” before stumbling out from the back yard onto Geneva Avenue, where he collapsed in a pool of his own blood, Krippendorf said.

Krippendorf told the court that autopsy photographs determined that Parris stabbed Andrews a total of eight times.

“Consider the injuries, consider the stab wounds,” Krippendorf said. “Look at the photos – not because they’re gruesome, but because those wounds inflicted on Sheldon Andrews are purposeful and intentional. They have direction. There were two right to the chest, six inches deep into the heart, six inches deep into the lung.”

Referring again to the autopsy photos, Krippendorf said, “Every picture tells a story. This photograph is the very definition of second-degree murder.”

As Andrews “lay dying in the middle of Geneva Avenue,” Krippendorf said, Parris walked to his car and drove away.

“The defendant, uninjured, goes back to his truck and flees,” Krippendorf said. “He flees accountability.”

Andrews was transported to Boston Medical Center suffering from mortal injuries. He died at about 11:00 that night. In the hours and days after his death, Boston Police homicide detectives obtained multiple witness statements indicating that Parris had stabbed him.

In the days and weeks that followed, Parris left the state to Atlanta, Georgia, where he purchased a one-way ticket in cash to Barbados. “He’s taking off because he knows what he did,” Krippendorf said.

Parris was apprehended on Sept. 5, 2008, as he stepped from a plane in Kingston, Jamaica. He had been tracked there by Boston Police, Suffolk prosecutors, and U.S. Marshals who learned he had a connecting flight to Barbados.

“Richard Parris was not acting in self-defense that day. He was not running from danger, but accountability,” Krippendorf said. “Hold him accountable and find him guilty.”

Superior Court Judge Christine McEvoy instructed jurors on the law, and sent them to begin their deliberations. Catherine Yuan is the district attorney’s victim-witness advocate assigned to the case. Parris is represented by attorney Frances Robinson.