Career criminals shouldn’t get chance to build resume

The horror of 13-year-old Tyler Lawrence’s murder last week keeps getting worse.

As charges were brought against Csean Alexander Skerritt, the man accused of gunning the child down, several disturbing accusations came to light. Authorities say Skerritt is a longtime gang member, fentanyl dealer, and given to “violence involving firearms.”

Of particular concern is the charge of “being an armed career criminal level III,” according to Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office.

So what the hell was he doing on the street?

Massachusetts enacted the Armed Career Criminal Act in 1998, which adds prison time to the sentences of those previously convicted of violent crimes or serious drug offenses. Level I mandates imprisonment in the state prison for not less than three years nor more than 15 years.

Level II, for those who’ve been previously convicted of two violent crimes, or two serious drug offenses or one violent crime and one serious drug offense, get time in the state prison for not less than 10 years nor more than 15 years.

Reaching Level III calls for a stint in state prison for not less than 15 years nor more than 20 years.

To have reached Level III “status,” alleged offender Skerritt would have to have faced maximum sentences of 15 to 20 years. As he was 34 and free before his arrest, it’s evident he did not.

Skerritt, as the Herald reported, has booked on murder charges before. He was accused of gunning a rival gang member down in 2014 — though he was acquitted of the charge after a 2017 trial. He’d already done three years in jail following a firearms conviction in 2010, according to the Suffolk DA’s office at the time. And by the time the DA’s office charged him with that killing in 2015, Skerritt was back behind bars after violating parole by catching a new and separate set of weapons charges in 2014.

One can only be a career criminal if you have the chance to pad your resume with fresh offenses.

Skerritt was nabbed in a SWAT-team raid by the FBI in Boston on Sunday. Those charges — which BPD describes as “unrelated” to the murder directly — came from a drug bust last week, according to federal charging documents that say he’s a member of the Morse Street gang.

He remains in federal custody on a charge of dealing fentanyl.

One would think that the enhanced sentencing inherent in the Armed Career Criminal statute would serve as a deterrent to advancing from Level I to Level II — and quash chances of making it to Level III.

But when maximum sentences are not meted out, convictions are more like speed bumps than brick walls to more crime.

Maximum sentences are anathema to progressive criminal justice reformers. Their mantra is decarceration, as if the crimes committed by those held in prison are irrelevant.

As all those who’ve lost loved ones to gun violence and fentanyl can attest, they are very relevant, and they are destroying out communities.

“If you’re thinking about coming here and making havoc in the city, rest assured that you will be brought to justice,” Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox said in a press conference.

If only we could count on that.