HALF-MILLION BAIL FOR ALLEGED ACCESSORY TO BOY’S MURDER April 6, 2009 A Suffolk Superior Court clerk magistrate set bail at half a million dollars for the Mattapan man who allegedly provided the murder weapon to a fellow gang member who used it to kill 13-year-old Steven Odom, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced today. Clerk Magistrate Gary D. Wilson ordered the high bail after a request by Suffolk Chief Trial Counsel Patrick M. Haggan, who told the court that DAVID JOHNSON (D.O.B. 8/20/89) gave a loaded .357 Colt Python revolver to CHARLES BUNCH, Jr. (D.O.B. 7/7/89) after Bunch told him that he needed the weapon to “handle” a rival he’d seen on Evans Street on the evening of Oct. 4, 2007. Haggan told the court that Johnson “kept at least two firearms at his residence for his potential use as well as the potential use of Charles Bunch” in violent attacks on their rivals. Prosecutors allege that Johnson and Bunch were members of a gang affiliated with Delhi Street and had an ongoing feud with members of another gang associated with nearby Thetford Avenue. Odom, who was walking home from playing basketball with his friends, was “an innocent victim” who was “not at all involved” with either group or their rivalry. He was walking home from playing basketball with friends when Bunch drove by and mistook one of those friends for a Thetford Avenue associate. After obtaining the gun from Johnson, Bunch allegedly drove back to the Evans Street area and fired on Odom’s group. The 13-year-old was struck in the head, sustaining a gunshot wound that took his life. Bunch then fled the area, returned to Johnson’s home, and handed him the Colt, which was still “hot to the touch with six spent shells in the cylinder,” Haggan said, quoting one of three tape-recorded, post-Miranda interviews in which the defendant allegedly admitted to giving Bunch the gun. “David Johnson engaged in numerous conversations about the incident in which Charles Bunch made statements that Steven Odom was an unintentional casualty of the ‘drama,’” Haggan said. “Whoever we see first, that’s who we’re going to get,” Johnson allegedly said in one of his statements. Haggan also noted that Johnson later gave the murder weapon to another Delhi Street associate. Conley on Saturday announced that an 18-month investigation by Suffolk prosecutors and Boston Police homicide detectives developed conclusive evidence that Bunch had fired the fatal shot and was himself shot dead 10 days later. “The murder of Charles Bunch, Jr., doesn’t alleviate the tragedy of Steven Odom’s murder,” Conley said. “It compounds it.” In addition to being charged as an accessory before the fact to Odom’s murder, Johnson was also indicted as an accessory after the fact to that homicide, accessory before the fact to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm, and unlawful possession of ammunition. He was represented today by attorney Elliot Levine and will return to court on June 4. Return to the Press Releases page.