JURY CONVICTS IN LANSDOWNE STREET MURDER Feb. 19, 2008 A Suffolk Superior Court jury today found that a Natick man murdered 32-year-old Craig Viera when he plunged a knife into the nightclub security chief’s abdomen, causing injuries that claimed his life two weeks later, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced. After four days of testimony and about a day’s deliberations, jurors convicted OSCAR ROSA, 21 (D.O.B. 10/22/86), of second-degree murder for stabbing Viera outside the Embassy Club in the early morning hours of Nov. 26, 2006. Viera lived for 13 days before succumbing to complications arising from his medical condition on Dec. 8 of that year. Superior Court Judge Regina Quinlan sentenced Rosa to the state’s mandatory term for second-degree murder, life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years. “We can only hope today’s verdict, and the weeks and months of investigation and preparation that preceded it, brings Craig’s family and many friends some satisfaction,” Conley said. “The jurors clearly examined all the facts before arriving at their collective decision, and we thank them for this just verdict.” Evidence introduced at trial proved that Rosa and a group of his friends were asked repeatedly to leave the Lansdowne Street nightclub prior to the fatal encounter. Club employees testified that Rosa was so disruptive inside the club that he was physically restrained and taken to the ground twice by security personnel before being ejected. Though Viera was not part of the security team that removed Rosa and his friends from the premises, evidence showed, he supervised those employees and took charge of the scene outside the club – even going so far as to promise Rosa and his friends free admission the following weekend in a bid to bring calm to the situation. Instead of accepting the offer, however, Rosa pulled a knife, stepped forward, and drove it two to three inches into the Framingham bodybuilder’s abdomen. That injury lacerated Viera’s liver. Viera was hospitalized following the stabbing and initially survived. After being released, however, clots started to form in his blood. The physically powerful man began to have difficulty breathing as the clots collected in his lungs, and – despite his mother’s desperate efforts to resuscitate him – he died on Dec. 8, 2006, when he could no longer breathe. “In the time I spent with him after he was stabbed until he died,” Sybil Viera said in a victim impact statement prior to sentencing, “he never uttered an ill word about his attacker. I think this is important … He never said a bed word about the man that killed him.” A gallery crowded with Viera’s friends, co-workers, and others who described a beloved personal trainer and universally-respected doorman became hushed as the victim’s mother continued. “[He had] a client who had to undergo chemotherapy for breast cancer,” she continued. “On her first day, Craig shaved her initials in the back of his head. He took a picture and sent it to her the morning of her first session. The message was clear: she was on his mind, and he cared. “There was a boy who was born with one arm longer than the other. Craig trained the young boy at his home. Craig understood his situation and he cared. He did more than just train him: he listened to him, he made him feel special. He gave him an ability to believe in himself. “The world was a better place for him having been here. We are all better for having known him, and he will be missed forever.” Rosa was represented at trial by attorney John Hayes of the Committee for Public Counsel Services. Return to the Press Releases page.