Man charged in killing of boy, 13, in Mattapan seeking a new lawyer
The man charged with fatally shooting 13-year-old Tyler Lawrence on a Mattapan street last year wants a judge to appoint a new lawyer to represent him, writing in court papers that his current attorney “doesn’t have my best interest at hand.”
Csean Alexander Skerritt, 35, who was acquitted in an unrelated murder case in 2017, said in a handwritten motion filed late last month in Suffolk Superior Court that he’s dissatisfied with the work of his current lawyer, David A. Leon.
“If it pleases the court, I, Csean Skerritt, would ask to be assigned a new court appointed lawyer to represent me,” Skerritt wrote in his motion, adding that Leon “doesn’t have my best interest at hand & isn’t active enough in producing discovery.”
A hearing on his request is scheduled for Tuesday. Leon didn’t immediately return voice and email messages.
Skerritt has pleaded not guilty to murder and weapons charges in the slaying of Lawrence, who was gunned down on Babson Street on the morning of Jan. 29, 2023. Lawrence lived with his mother in Norwood and was visiting his grandparents in Mattapan when he was killed.
During Skerritt’s arraignment in Superior Court in March 2023, Assistant District Attorney Julie S. Higgins said it took him 1 minute and 11 seconds to walk up to Lawrence, shoot him five times at close range, and flee.
Authorities haven’t disclosed a motive for the slaying, which shocked the city. Skerritt is being held without bail.
Higgins also described Skerritt’s movements on the morning Lawrence was killed, drawing on video surveillance, 911 calls, and a gunshot detection system.
Skerritt left his home in Chelsea just after 11 a.m. and headed into Boston driving a black Infiniti SUV, Higgins said. His vehicle was captured on surveillance video in Dorchester at about 11:23 a.m. and in Mattapan about four minutes later, she said.
Meanwhile, Lawrence had left his grandparents’ home just after 11:20 a.m, and was walking through the neighborhood, Higgins said. At 11:30 a.m., Skerritt parked on Fremont Street, got out of his car, and headed toward the intersection with Babson Street, she said.
Lawrence was on the other side of the road, walking in the opposite direction. At 11:31, shots were fired, according to the detection system. Skerritt allegedly fired five rounds in less than two seconds, Higgins said.
Nine seconds after the final shot, Skerritt took off running toward the spot on Fremont Street where he parked his SUV, Higgins said.
He then met his girlfriend at a two-family home at the corner of Fremont Street and Faunce Road, a block away from where Lawrence was shot, Higgins wrote in court papers.
Skerritt has a long criminal history, with juvenile convictions for armed assault with intent to rob, assault with a dangerous weapon using a baseball bat, carjacking, and receiving stolen property, Higgins said at his arraignment.
In 2006, Skerritt, then 17, was committed to the Department of Youth Services until he turned 21 after he admitted to stabbing a worker in the chest at a Walgreens in Somerville. The attack nearly killed the worker, who needed 46 staples for his wounds, records show.
As an adult, Skerritt has been convicted twice of firearms offenses and prosecuted for attacks on correction officers in Plymouth and Boston, records show. In 2017, he was acquitted in the shooting death of Julien Printemps in Dorchester.
In February 2023, Lawrence was honored during a memorial service in Norwood.
“This was a boy who was going to have a big impact on the world,” said Toffer Winslow, a former mentor to Tyler in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.