Lynn man gets 42 years for fatal Easter Sunday shooting
DA: William Cash shot the men over a woman he “repeatedly attempted to pull into his prostitution ring."
A 47-year-old Lynn man was sentenced Monday for fatally shooting a man in broad daylight on Easter Sunday in 2017. The shooting also seriously injured another man.
William Cash was sentenced to serve 42 years in prison before he can seek parole, according to the Essex District Attorney’s office.
Cash was convicted of second degree murder, armed assault with intent to murder, human trafficking, and numerous firearms offenses.
The prosecution introduced evidence during the trial that suggested Cash shot the men over a woman he “repeatedly attempted to pull into his prostitution ring,” the DA’s office said.
Evidence showed Cash fatally shot a 46-year-old blind man and injured another man in when they told him to leave the woman alone. The men were walking home from church at the time of the shooting.
Essex Assistant District Attorney Susan Dolhun said in court that the man who was killed, Leonard Clement, “was a truly innocent person who was trying to defuse an argument. The loss to the community is incalculable.”
The man who was seriously injured in the shooting, Prince Belin, was “fearful of going outside” after the incident, Dolhun said. Belin died of unrelated causes before the trial.
“No sentence can undo what this defendant has done,” Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said in a statement. “But this sentence is just in that it recognizes the unique pain of each victim.”
