Three Indicted for First-Degree Murder in Shopkeeper’s Homicide

BOSTON, Sept. 27, 2017—The Suffolk County Grand Jury today returned indictments charging three men with first-degree murder for the homicide of 58-year-old Andres Cruz in his Mission Hill hardware store, District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

In addition to first-degree murder, the indictments charge JEROME HOBSON (D.O.B. 11/20/78) of Dorchester, SHAWN REDDEN (D.O.B. 1/14/91) of Brockton, and CHRISTIAN SOTO-OLIVERO (D.O.B. 3/12/96) of Mattapan with armed robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm for the July 18 incident at AC Hardware on Tremont Street.

All three defendants have been held without bail since July 19, when Redden and Soto-Olivero were arraigned in West Roxbury Municipal Court and Hobson was arraigned at Boston Medical Center, where he was being treated for serious laceration injuries he had apparently sustained during the fatal encounter. Today’s indictments move their cases to Suffolk Superior Court, where they will be adjudicated.

Boston Police apprehended the defendants shortly after the robbery and homicide thanks to the assistance of neighborhood witnesses, including one who observed the shop’s door to be closed in the middle of the day, a second whom this witness asked to check on Cruz and found him mortally wounded, and a third who observed three men – one of them bleeding badly – leaving the area.

The defendants’ Superior Court arraignments have not yet been scheduled.

 

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