PROSECUTOR: DNA LINKS SUSPECT TO ELDER’S MURDER April 4, 2008 A Roxbury man was held without bail today following his arraignment on charges that he stabbed a senior citizen more than 20 times and left a trail of his own blood out the victim’s back door, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced. In proceedings at Roxbury District Court this afternoon, LARRY NELSON (D.O.B. 1/5/58) pleaded not guilty to the murder of Richard Stroman in Stroman’s Elm Hill Avenue apartment last year. He was ordered held without bail and will return to court on May 1. Assistant District Attorney Gretchen Lundgren told the court that the two men had known each other for several years and that the victim was in poor health prior to his death. At some point on or about Oct. 7, Lundgren said, “the defendant – taller, heavier, and 15 years younger – repeatedly stabbed Mr. Stroman” 22 times in the face, neck, chest, and back. In the course of attacking the victim, she told the court, Nelson injured his own right hand and left blood throughout the apartment – including a trail that led out the back door. Stroman’s body went undiscovered for five days before his neighbors noticed they hadn’t seen him and reported a strange odor. Boston Police responded to the scene on Oct. 12 and found his body close to the apartment’s front door. Members of the Boston Police Crime Laboratory also responded and took multiple samples of blood from throughout the apartment, later determining that the blood had come from two sources – the victim and an unknown party. Homicide detectives spoke with Nelson regarding the investigation last month. In the course of their conversations, Nelson voluntarily provided them with a DNA sample; that sample later came back as a match with the blood found in Stroman’s apartment. Based on this and additional evidence developed in the course of the investigation, the chief of Conley’s Homicide Unit approved a warrant for Nelson’s arrest yesterday. He surrendered himself to Boston Police this morning. “The facts as we learned them were shocking,” Conley said. “It was a brutal attack on a vulnerable man. Boston Police criminalists did an outstanding job in gathering evidence, and we will present that evidence to the court to hold this defendant accountable for the life he took.” Nelson was represented by attorney John Palmer. He is the fourth murder suspect arrested this week and the third to be arrested for a 2007 murder: THOMAS MANNING, 22, was arrested Monday for the March 31 shooting death of Luis Ortiz in Allston, while SHAWN “SHANKS” DAUGHTRY (D.O.B. 5/14/80) and DEMETRIUS “DEMEET” WARDSWORTH were arrested Tuesday for the Sept. 20, 2007, shooting death of Urel Duncan in Roxbury. Return to the Press Releases page.