Seal of the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office




BOURNESIDE PROSECUTOR: TRUST “EVIDENCE, NOT SPECULATION”

June 6, 2008

The top prosecuting attorney in Suffolk County today urged jurors in the trial of CALVIN CARNES, Jr. (D.O.B. 8/8/86), to trust the abundant scientific evidence that “supports, corroborates, and proves the truthfulness, veracity, and accuracy of the witnesses” who testified against the defendant.

Carnes is charged with four counts of first-degree murder for the shooting deaths of Jason Bachiller, 21; Jihad Chankhour, 22; Edwin “E.J.” Duncan, 21; and Christopher “Fat Boy” Vieira, 19, in the basement of Duncan’s Bourneside Street home on the night of Dec. 13, 2005. He is additionally charged with three counts of armed robbery and single counts of larceny of a firearm, unlawful possession of a large capacity weapon, unlawful possession of a shotgun, and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Those charges reflect the theft and possession of the murder weapon – Vieira’s Glock 9mm handgun – as well as an AK-47 rifle and a Mossberg 12-guage shotgun that the group used as props for their musical group.

In powerful closing arguments this morning, First Assistant District Attorney Josh Wall played for the jury and a packed gallery the very first piece of evidence in the investigation into the young men’s deaths – a chilling 911 call by Edwin Duncan’s mother, who had heard shots from her basement and gone down to find him murdered.

As her recorded screams echoed through the courtroom, Wall placed crime scene photograph after crime scene photograph depicting the young men’s bullet-riddled bodies on a screen where they could be seen by the 16-member panel – but not by the four victim’s families.

“Ladies and gentlemen, that’s how they died,” Wall said when the screaming ended. “But you have to understand more than that – you have to understand how they lived.”

Wall described a trio of promising young artists – Bachiller, Duncan, and Vieira – who dreamed of musical success with their hip-hop group, Graveside, and frequently socialized with Chankhour, a good friend whose talent with electronics made him a staple in their basement recording studio. On the outside of that circle of friends was Carnes, who had once cut a track with the band that wasn’t included on their CD.

Duncan “was a church boy,” Wall said. “His mother had a plan from the beginning – a plan to protect her family. She worked hard. She bought a large home in a good neighborhood.”

If Graveside sang songs of the street, Wall said, it wasn’t because the group glorified violence and gunplay.

“These young men were reporters of what they saw, of urban violence,” Wall said. “When Edwin Duncan rapped, he was telling people to put down their guns. When Jason Bachiller rapped, he was telling people to stop the violence.”

Dismissing theories that a stranger had targeted the victims for assassination, Wall laid out the evidence that they were slain by someone they knew and trusted.

“There was no break-in,” Wall said, reminding jurors of testimony that guests had to call Duncan in order to be let into the basement where the four were gunned down.

Also, Wall said, the killer fled the scene in a car belonging to one of the victims. Duncan’s mother saw a man with “walnut-colored” skin – matching the defendant’s – walk to and enter Vieira’s black Ford Escort in the immediate aftermath of the murders, and witnesses saw that car leaving the scene a short time later.

“Why would someone plan a murder,” Wall asked, “and not have a means of transportation?”

Wall further suggested that the placement and locations of the victims’ bodies intimated that they were running away from a central location near a television and couches toward the exterior door, and not toward an inside door to the building’s upper floors, when they were shot.

“They’re telling you with their flight that the shooter was a friend,” Wall said. “Ladies and gentlemen, it was a friend who came in Chris Vieira’s car, was let in and allowed to come in as a guest and a friend. It was someone Chris Vieira trusted to hand his weapon to. So which friend was it?”

Wall recapped the testimony of multiple civilian witnesses who testified to the actions and behavior of Carnes and his one time co-defendant, ROBERT TURNER, 19 (D.O.B. 12/16/86), following the murders. Turner pleaded guilty to all charges earlier this year, taking a 13-year state prison sentence on four counts of accessory after the fact to murder, as well as several weapons charges. He received no deal, agreement, or offer from prosecutors.

“How about the friend who, within minutes of the crime, is frantically searching for trash bags and duct tape,” Wall suggested, reminding jurors of witness testimony regarding Carnes’ actions on the night of the murders and the early morning hours that followed. “Who, within hours of the crime, shows up at his girlfriend’s house with two guns in trash bags and duct tape? And, when nobody but the killer knew that Chris Vieira’s blood and brains and teeth were on the floor at 43 Bourneside Street, told witnesses, ‘Fat Boy’s not the killer – Fat Boy’s dead?’ Who, the next day, pulls out a Glock?”

Wall urged jurors to review that witness testimony and check it against the impartial evidence that corroborates it – Carnes’ DNA on a drinking glass and a towel that also contained particles of lead and copper from the Glock, both from the home of a witness who put the defendant in her residence producing the murder weapon and wiping it down the night after the murders.

Wall also reminded jurors that Carnes’ alibi – that he was selling marijuana at a Florida Street residence at the time of the murders – was flatly contradicted by a rebuttal witness who lived at that address and testified that he was not at her home on the night of Dec. 13, 2005, and that she didn’t see him until days after the murders. That witness also said that she heard Carnes ask someone, “You want to buy some guns? I have an AK.”

Also disputing that alibi are phone records from the evening of Dec. 13, 2005, putting Carnes in frequent contact with Vieira until about 8:00, when prosecutors allege Vieira drove Carnes and Bachiller to the scene. Those records also suggest put Carnes at his Talbot Street residence shortly after the murders.

“No calls to see if Chris Vieira and Jason Bachiller are dead,” Wall said. “He knows what happened. All of these calls showing his consciousness of guilt.”

Wall spoke of the fingerprint Carnes left on a rear door to Vieira’s car, noting that a massive storm blanketed the Boston area with snow just a few days before the murders.

“His print goes on that car after Dec. 9,” Wall said. “It goes on that car on Dec. 13 … The guns didn’t fit in the trunk, so he puts them in the back seat. That’s why his print is on the back door.”

Finally, Wall addressed defense attorney Shannon Frison’s assertion that Carnes’ arrest came after a “rush to judgment.”

“If you use a phrase like that, the evidence better support it,” Wall said, noting that Carnes was not arrested until May 19, 2006. “Six months – is that a rush to judgment? By May 19, there had been more than 40 witnesses in the grand jury …. And when he was arrested on May 19, the investigation didn’t stop – another 20 witnesses testified in the grand jury.”

After three weeks of testimony by well over five dozen witnesses and hundreds of physical exhibits, Wall spoke directly to the jury a final time.

“When Calvin Carnes walked into that basement, he was a friend,” Wall said. “When he walked out, he was a murderer …. The killer is in this courtroom, and he’s right in front of you.”

After closing arguments, Judge Patrick Brady instructed jurors on the law. They began their deliberations this afternoon. If they do not reach a unanimous verdict today, they will resume deliberations Monday.