MAN PLEADS GUILTY AFTER ARREST ON 17-YEAR-OLD WARRANT Feb. 21, 2008 A 67-year-old South End man pleaded guilty yesterday to a crime he committed more than 15 years ago after Suffolk prosecutors were able to track down the woman he beat and robbed in 1991, District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced. EPIFANIO LUNA (D.O.B. 1/8/1940) admitted to kicking his former girlfriend –now 75 years old – and taking cash and jewelry from her on June 28, 1991, in her West Dedham Street home. Boston Municipal Court Judge Paul K. Leary sentenced him to a year of probation on the condition that he pay the victim $585 in restitution for her losses. “It wasn’t easy to track down the victim and critical witnesses to a 1991 offense, but we were able to do it and hold this man accountable for the crime he committed,” Conley said. “In this case, justice delayed was justice delivered.” Immediately after the crime, the victim called Boston Police, who summonsed Luna in to his Boston Municipal Court arraignment. It was the last they saw of him for almost 17 years. On Jan. 1 of this year, Boston Police officers assigned to the District 4 Drug Control Unit observed Luna engaging in an apparent drug transaction. The officers approached him as he left the alleged dealer and learned that he had the outstanding warrant. He was taken into custody, re-arraigned on the 1991 charge, and held on $500 cash bail until yesterday, Conley said. The statute of limitations for assault and battery, which expires after six years, did not apply in this case because Luna was formally charged shortly after the incident. But for his decision to default on the open case, Conley said, the case likely would have been resolved many years ago. Once prosecutors learned that Luna had the open warrant, they began the task of searching for the victim, who had long since left Boston and the South End. Civilian investigators from Conley’s office tracked her to another city in Massachusetts and informed her that the man who had beaten her was back in custody. She agreed to testify against him, and they drove her to court yesterday morning. The Boston Police District 4 officer who responded to the victim’s call, now assigned to Boston Police Headquarters, was also prepared to testify had Luna not pleaded guilty. “There were a lot of moving parts in this case,” Conley said. “The passage of so much time really could have hurt our ability to prosecute it. When you have a team so dedicated to what they do, though, anything is possible.” Return to the Press Releases page.