BOSTON, July 22, 2014—A Cambridge man has been sentenced to a year and a half behind bars after a jury found him guilty of possessing a loaded firearm in Boston’s Theater District, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

STEVEN BELIZAIRE (D.O.B. 1/27/87) of Cambridge was convicted Thursday of unlawful possession of a firearm and carrying a loaded firearm after a jury trial in the Suffolk County Gun Court.  Assistant District Attorney Caitlin Grasso of the DA’s Gun Prosecution Task Force recommended a sentence of two years in the house of correction for unlawfully possessing the firearm. Granting a request by the defendant, Judge Tracy-Lee Lyons imposed the minimum mandatory term of 18 months in the house of correction.

For carrying the loaded firearm, Grasso also recommended a two-year suspended sentence to begin when Belizaire’s committed sentence ends – a recommendation to ensure that Belizaire is monitored by the court upon his release. Lyons instead imposed a sentence of one day.

During the course of the three-day trial, Grasso presented evidence and testimony to prove that shortly after 2:30 a.m. on June 18, 2011, Boston Police on patrol observed a fight in the area of 10 Park Plaza and located an unconscious man lying on his back on the ground. A group of individuals then ran across the street to a black Chevrolet motor vehicle.  One of those people, recognized by police as Belizaire, then ran from the Chevy to a Ford Taurus.  The Chevy then fled.

Officers approached Belizaire, who was seated in the rear passenger side seat, and attempted to remove him from the vehicle.  Rather than complying, Belizaire instructed the driver to go.  The officer, who was holding onto the car’s open door, was pulled several feet as the car took off.

Additional officers blocked Stuart Street with a cruiser and successfully stopped the Ford Taurus carrying Belizaire and four other people, all of whom were removed from the vehicle. The driver was charged with negligent operation of a motor vehicle but died while his case was pending.

At trial, jurors heard that the officers discovered a loaded Ruger .38 caliber semiautomatic handgun under the front passenger’s seat, directly in front of where Belizaire had been sitting. Jurors also heard that criminalists from the Boston Police Crime Laboratory’s Latent Print Section were able to match two prints found on the firearm to Belizaire’s right thumb and right ring finger.

Belizaire was represented by attorney Paul Derby.

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