Judge denies bid for new lawyer in slaying

Man charged in killing of boy, 13

A Suffolk Superior Court judge has denied a request from a man charged with fatally shooting 13-year-old Tyler Lawrence in Mattapan last year for a new court-appointed lawyer to represent him, according to legal filings.

A hearing was held Tuesday on the request from Csean Alexander Skerritt, 35, who is being held without bail on murder and weapons charges in connection with Lawrence’s killing on Jan. 29, 2023.

“After a hearing, the motion is denied,” an entry on Skerritt’s case docket said. His lawyer, David Leon, didn’t immediately return a request for comment Thursday.

Skerritt, who was acquitted in a separate murder case in 2017, said in a handwritten motion filed last month that he was dissatisfied with Leon’s work.

“If it pleases the court, I, Csean Skerritt, would ask to be assigned a new court appointed lawyer to represent me,” Skerritt wrote, adding that Leon “doesn’t have my best interest at hand & isn’t active enough in producing discovery.”

Lawrence lived with his mother in Norwood and was visiting his grandparents in Mattapan when he was killed.

During Skerritt’s arraignment in March 2023, Assistant District Attorney Julie S. Higgins said it took him one 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 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. As an adult, he has twice been convicted 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 remembered as a kindhearted child 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. “He was going to be a force for good.”

Skerritt’s trial is slated to begin in November.