Two men get life for 2015 Roxbury murder of man, 23

Two Boston men will spend the rest of their lives behind bars for a 2015 shooting murder in a Roxbury parking lot.

“When I heard the verdict, I thought, ‘my son can rest in peace now,’ but then I was sad because I thought, ‘nothing will bring my son back,’” Melinda Bodden, the mother of victim Luis Bodden-Maximo, said at the sentencing in Suffolk Superior Court on June 23.

Jerome Meade, 27, will have no possibility of parole and Javier Smith, 26, will have to serve at least 15 years before seeking parole for murdering BoddenMaximo, 23, in the parking lot of a Mission Hill TGI Friday’s restaurant.

Bodden-Maximo went to the Tremont Street restaurant with his girlfriend on Sept. 16, 2015. The couple had only sat for 10 minutes before Smith came in and made eye contact with them before ducking back out, according to the Suffolk District Attorney’s office, prompting the pair to immediately leave.

As the couple started to enter their car, Meade said “You’re an opp” — gangland slang for being an “opposite” or being from a rival neighborhood, prosecutors said at the original 2015 West Roxbury municipal court arraignment — and shot at him with a handgun.

Bodden-Maximo tried to run, but Meade chased him down and continued shooting even after Bodden-Maximo fell face-first into the parking lot asphalt.

Bodden-Maximo — a son, brother and uncle — was pronounced dead at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

A cousin of his, Neicy

Ross, said that “he was headed down the right path” at the time of his murder and had been trying to transfer his probation for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute to Florida so he could move back in with his mother.

“One young man is dead, chased and shot in front of his girlfriend during a lunch date. Two other young men are going to spend many years in prison. And many others, including family and friends, must forever live with loss and grief in their hearts,” Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden wrote in a statement. “All because of quick, terrible decisions.”

POOL PHOTO LOCKED UP: Jerome Meade, left, and Javier Smith are seen at their October 2015 arraignment on charges of murdering Luis Bodden-Maximo in Mission Hill the month before. On June 23, both men were sentenced to life in prison.