BOSTON, May 28, 2013—A Level III sex offender from Roxbury pleaded guilty to strangling 48-year-old Jewell Alsop to death as his trial on that charge was set to begin, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

On the first day of jury selection, FITZHUGH NEWTON III (D.O.B. 3/26/59) pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Alsop’s Feb. 25, 2009, homicide. He was sentenced to the mandatory term for that offense, life in prison.

Had the case proceeded to trial, Assistant District Attorney Julie Higgins of the DA’s Homicide Unit would have introduced evidence and testimony to prove that Newton strangled Alsop to death in the back of a delivery truck parked on Columbia Road in Dorchester. Her remains were discovered at about 5:00 the next morning.

“Ms. Alsop’s family has shown immense strength and grace in the face of their loss,” Conley said. “It shows the kind of mother she was and the kind of legacy she leaves. She made the world a better place. We hope that her loved ones can take some satisfaction in this defendant’s admission and some comfort in knowing that he will likely never walk freely in this world again.”

Alsop, who lived most recently in Arlington, left a son who addressed the court briefly prior to sentencing.

“The woman who gave me life and made me who I am was taken from me,” he said. “It’s been a very, very long road. The healing isn’t complete. But at least this part is finished.”

Workers at a Dorchester food preparation and delivery service notified Boston Police when they observed the rear door to one of their trucks open and found Alsop unresponsive inside. Emergency medical technicians pronounced her dead at the scene.

Biological evidence recovered from the crime scene and from the victim’s remains was processed by Boston Police criminalists, who developed from them a DNA profile believed to be the attacker’s. That profile was then submitted to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System – or CODIS – a database containing millions of DNA samples from offenders both known and unknown.

The DNA sample from Alsop’s murder came back as a “hit,” matching a sample that Newton had previously submitted to CODIS. Under Massachusetts law, anyone convicted of a felony must provide such a sample; Newton has felony convictions dating back to 1979, when he was found guilty of kidnapping and assault with intent to rape.

Boston Police homicide detectives also located a friend of Newton who would have testified that he came to her home late at night toward the end of February 2009. He was angry, that witness was expected to testify, and said he had been in a fight with two men and pushed a woman.

Newton was convicted of kidnapping, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and assault with intent to rape in 1979. He was sentenced to 15 years in state prison. In 1996, he was sentenced to four years in prison for assault and battery, violating a restraining order, and stalking. In 2003, he was sentenced to six months for six months for failing to register as a sex offender.

Katherine Moran was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Newton was represented by attorney Mark Shea.

–30–

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