‘I couldn’t really move’
Victim testifies about being shot, seeing friend killed
James Lawton managed to crawl behind a parked car on a Charlestown street after being riddled by bullets on the November night when his life changed forever three years ago.
“I couldn’t move my legs. I could not stand up. I was in a lot of pain. I couldn’t move from that spot,” Lawton told the court yesterday.
Lawton choked back tears as he recalled seeing his childhood buddy, Ryan “Duce” Morrissey, lying on the other side of the car next to the curb.
“I couldn’t really move, and I saw him under the car. I just started yelling for somebody to call an ambulance,” Lawton said.
Yesterday, he faced the three men accused of nearly killing him on that November night three years ago, the same three men charged with the senseless murder of Ryan, a beloved 17-year-old hockey player and counselor at the Charlestown Boys & Girls Club.
About three dozen of Ryan’s relatives and friends packed the ninthfloor courtroom for the first day of trial for Julio Baez, 26, Alexander Soto, 20, and Danilo Soto,
24, all charged with first-degree murder and armed assault with intent to murder. Another dozen people were there for the defendants.
Lawton, now 22, grew up with Ryan in Charlestown. On the night of Nov. 5, 2014, they met up with other friends at A-1 Convenience store, the old Doyle’s, as they often did to play Keno and hang out. On the big screens in court, video footage showed Ryan moments before the deadly shooting, reaching into the cooler for his favorite Arizona Iced Tea and leaving the store with Lawton.
Lawton, a mason, lived across the street and had to get up early for work. Outside, as Lawton leaned against the building, he said two men came around the corner wearing hooded sweatshirts pulled tight to cover their faces. One kept turning back and staring at Lawton, making him uneasy. Ryan was standing near a trash barrel.
“They got about 10 feet in front of us, and I saw them both turn around and start shooting,” Lawton said. “I heard the gunshots and I felt a sharp pain and I fell to the ground and I covered my head and started crawling as much as I could.”
Lawton crawled behind a car. He felt a sharp pain throughout his body. “My body kept tingling. I couldn’t feel really much in my leg or anything after that,” Lawton said. “There was just a lot of shots I heard. They each had a hand raised up while they were shooting.”
Lawton was shot in his hand, hips, biceps and elbow, and crawled to safety.
Ryan, lying on the pavement, died four days later at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Prosecutors have said Ryan and Lawton were not the intended targets.
At 9:38 p.m. that night, Alexander Soto and Danilo Soto, who are not related, made their “first pass” by the store, said prosecutor John Verner. Alexander Soto wore a gray hooded sweatshirt while Danilo Soto wore a black one. The pair stayed out of sight for two minutes before returning and opening fire.
“Meanwhile, back at the store, Ryan Morrissey was spending his last two minutes without a bullet lodged in his spinal cord,” said Verner. Ryan and Lawton, the prosecutor said, decided to leave the store “in the midst of a plan to kill someone.” Two others went inside, including Daniel Goggin, 23, who was sentenced to two years behind bars in 2016 for refusing to provide information to a grand jury investigation into Ryan’s murder.
Baez was behind the wheel of the getaway car, Verner said.
At one time, Ryan, Lawton and Alexander Soto had played baseball together when they were 13 and 14 years old. Soto was nicknamed “A-Rod.” Lawton said he hadn’t seen Soto since then.
Ryan’s father, Stephen, took the stand briefly, his voice cracking when he was shown a photo of Ryan. “That’s my son,” he said.