SPECIAL GRAND JURY INDICTS IN YEAR’S FIRST HOMICIDE April 3, 2008 The Suffolk County Special Grand Jury yesterday indicted a Dorchester man on murder and firearms charges stemming from Boston’s first homicide this year, that of 23-year-old Joseph N. Clarke, District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced. RAYON GILLESPIE, 23 (D.O.B. 8/28/83), of Dorchester is charged with second-degree murder and unlawfully carrying a firearm in connection with Clarke’s Jan. 6 shooting death on Norton Street. Gillespie, who was arrested Jan. 10 in the course of a joint investigation by Boston Police homicide detectives and Suffolk prosecutors, has been held without bail since his district court murder arraignment. Evidence suggests that Gillespie became involved in a verbal altercation with Clarke outside a Norton Street party. In the course of that dispute, prosecutors allege, Gillespie produced a handgun from his waistband and racked a round into the chamber, prompting Clarke to draw his own firearm. Both men are believed to have fired their weapons. Clarke suffered a fatal gunshot wound to his head and fell to the ground, gun in hand. Gillespie is expected to be arraigned on the indictments in the Magistrate’s Session of Suffolk Superior Court on April 11. Return to the Press Releases page.