JUSTICE COMES 30 YEARS LATER
Mother to daughter’s murderer: ‘I forgive him’
Doris Brimage waited more than 30 years for justice, and when the moment of truth finally came, she tearfully forgave the man who murdered her oldest daughter.
“I forgive him even though he did this to my first born,” Brimage said, looking back at James Paige, the man convicted of murdering her daughter Dora. “I just want him to know that. Because I know that if I forgive him then God will forgive me.”
But as she walked back to the gallery, Brimage glared at Paige.
“I hope you rot in hell,” she told him.
Paige was sentenced to life behind bars without the possibility of parole yesterday by Judge Christopher Muse in Suffolk Superior Court. DNA evidence linked Paige to the grisly 1987 murder of Dora Brimage — a case that was brought back to life after detectives assigned to the Boston Police Cold Case Squad re-interviewed witnesses and requested new testing.
Doris Brimage and another daughter, Angie, took the stand to outline the pain that Paige’s crime put them through. Angie Brimage named two of her children in honor of her sister. She said she hasn’t worn pink in three decades because that’s the color of the outfit Dora was murdered in.
“I’m not like my mom. I don’t think I’m going to be able to forgive him,” Angie Brimage said. “There’s going to be hate in my heart toward him. When he did what he did, he showed no remorse. He didn’t care. He didn’t care who she had at home.”
Paige shook his head as the tearful statements washed over him and spent nearly five minutes defending himself before Muse laid down the sentence.
“DNA did not put me at the crime scene,” Paige said, adding later, “My mom didn’t raise no fool, and my mom didn’t raise no killer.”
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said he hopes the sentence gives the Brimage family some peace.
“After decades of waiting and wondering, Dora’s family has finally seen justice done,” Conley said in a statement. “This result can’t bring her back to their arms, but I hope it can give them some satisfaction to know the truth and see her killer held accountable.”
Outside court, Doris Brimage hugged two investigators who helped solve her daughter’s murder. When she left the courthouse, one member of the Cold Case Squad held out his arm and helped her down the stairs.