Trial finally begins in 2010 Roxbury grocery murder
An agonizing seven-year wait ends today for the heartbroken family of a beloved grandfather gunned down in a Roxbury grocery store, as the man’s accused killer will finally stand trial after years of legal battles and a landmark Supreme Judicial Court decision.
“I gave up on it a while ago, waiting all these years has been frustrating,” said Angel Serrano, whose father, Geraldo Serrano Sr., was killed Feb. 21, 2010, at the age of 71. “I’ve dealt with depression, I’ve been under stress. It’s been tough, but now the trial is going to start and everything should work out the way we want it to work out.”
The elder Serrano was stocking shelves at a popular Dudley Street bodega, Hermanos Unidos, when police say he was shot and killed by two masked teenagers who demanded money. One teen, Martin Freels, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2013 and is serving a 15-year sentence.
Prosecutors say Onyx White, now 23 and going on trial today, pulled the trigger.
The crime shocked the neighborhood. Then-Mayor Thomas M. Menino promised to help small stores buy better security equipment. Police made arrests and evidence was put before a grand jury within days. A tip from White’s mother reportedly helped lead to her son’s quick capture.
The case then slowed dramatically as lawyers wrestled over pretrial motions for the better part of a decade. In a case that took the SJC nine months to decide, White’s attorney, J.W. Carney, successfully had his client’s seized cellphone excluded when the court ruled the right to privacy trumped the “common sense notion” that suspects use phones to talk to each other.
White’s case has been in Superior Court well over 100 times since 2010, mostly for defense-initiated motions, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.
“This length of time in this case is really a bit of an outlier,” Conley told the Herald, noting most murder cases are before a jury less than two years after an arrest. “It’s better for us if these cases are tried more expeditiously but we only get one shot at this, we can’t sacrifice thoroughness and fairness for a quick job.”
For seven years, White remained behind bars while Serrano’s widow, Esmeralda, eight living children, and 28 grandchildren, waited for justice.
“It’s been hard for my mother,” Angel Serrano said. “She said, ‘Leave everything in the court’s hands.’ The only thing she knows is her husband of almost 50 years was taken away.”
Sitting outside the Suffolk Superior courtroom where his father’s alleged killer will stand trial, Serrano, 49, wept as he remembered playing dominoes, hosting cookouts and going to church weekly with his dad. He said he had thoughts of suicide and of lashing out at others, but counseling and a sense of responsibility to his three children kept him focused.
“My dad was my everything, my heart, I miss him a lot,” Serrano said.