Roxbury slaying to forced labor at pizza place
A 33-year-old Boston man has been nabbed and charged as the suspect in a shooting last month that injured one man and killed another man, Terrell Banks, 37, of Boston.
Stephen Freeman, 33, of Boston, was arrested Thursday in the area of Shawmut Avenue and Hammond Street for the murder of Banks in front of Slade’s Bar and Grill on Tremont Street on Feb. 18. He pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, as well as multiple firearms charges, at municipal court in Roxbury Friday.
Prosecutors say that police suspected Freeman of the murder due to the “distinctive clothing” he wore, as seen in surveillance video recovered from inside the restaurant and following the gunman’s path after the shooting.
Restaurant owner accused of using illegal employees like slaves
The feds say that the owner of the local chain “Stash’s Pizza” was serving up slices of pain to his employees, and preferred hiring illegal immigrants so they would have no recourse to his methods of management.
“The allegations in this case are horrific. Nobody has the right to violently kick, slap, punch or choke anyone, and certainly not an employer to an employee,” said U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Rachael Rollins.
Stavros Papantoniadis, 47, of Westwood, was arrested Thursday morning and charged with one count of forced labor, for which he made an initial appearance in federal court in Boston that same morning. The feds say he maintained abusive practices against his employees for at least 14 years and would threaten to have them deported if they complained.
Papantoniadis is scheduled to next appear in court on Monday.
Warrant issued for murder suspect
Authorities have issued a murder warrant against Dion Smith, 33 of Boston, in the stabbing death of a 79-year-old Malden man.
Malden Police on Feb. 22 at around 2 p.m. were dispatched to an apartment building on Kennedy Drive for a strange odor coming from a second-floor apartment, according to the Middlesex DA’s office. In that apartment, they found resident Ronald Gilbert, 79, dead on the floor.
The Middlesex DA’s office noted Gilbert had been dead “for some time,” likely since December of last year, and had suffered from more than 30 stab wounds.
Boston child pleads guilty to assault to murder
An unidentified juvenile pleaded guilty to his role in a
July 21, 2020, incident on Waumbeck Street in Roxbury that left a 31-year-old male victim with “catastrophic injuries,” according to the Suffolk DA’s office, and wheelchair-bound for life.
Juvenile court Judge Peter Coyne on Thursday sentenced the teen to 10 to 13 years in state prison for the charges of armed assault to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury and illegal possession of a firearm.
That summer day, the victim was riding a scooter down the street when “several gunmen appeared on foot and opened fire,” riddling him with bullets, according to a DA statement. A police officer on patrol heard the shots and chased the suspects into Codman Park.
An adult co-defendant, Naje Duchard, is scheduled to go on trial on April 18 in Suffolk Superior Court.