MASSACHUSETTS, United States.- A superior court sentenced to life imprisonment a convicted murderer of a Dominican student in the suburb of Malden.
Yahia Mastouri, a pleaded convict, was sentenced for the March 2, 2019 shooting murder of Dominican student Jeury Batista on a street behind the housing project near the suburban Malden High School.
Prosecutors said Batista, who was studying at North Shore Community College, went with his girlfriend to the scene of the crime to buy marijuana from the gunman, but according to police, the transaction failed so the convict shot the student to death.
The murderer was accompanied by his accomplice Josué L. Espada, who was also found guilty of complicity in Batista’s death.
After assassinating Batista, Mastouri fled Massachusetts for California and was captured in Los Angeles from where he was extradited to his home state.
HE HAD GRADUATED FROM BACHELOR
Batista had graduated from Salem High School (Massachusetts) and then enrolled in community college.
Mastouri, 21, was convicted of second-degree murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, firearms charges and conspiracy to violate drug laws.
Espada, 22, also of Malden, was convicted of accessory to crime and conspiracy to violate drug laws.
The two will be sentenced on January 6 in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn County.
Prosecutors argued that Batista had gone to Malden with his girlfriend at the time, a woman identified as Danielle Lauritzen, to buy marijuana from some of Lauritzen’s acquaintances from high school, but instead they were tricked into being robbed behind the nearby housing project. from Malden Catholic High School.
Attorneys for Mastouri and Espada tried to convince jurors that Batista was planning to rob his clients, an argument jurors rejected at the end of the 20-day trial.