Newsletter Signup
Stay up to date on all the latest news from Boston.com
Prosecutors: 16-year-old accused of fatal Jamaica Plain stabbing was upset about explicit photos
The incident on Saturday night left one woman, 21-year-old Brianna Brown, dead.
A 16-year-old girl has been charged with murder and ordered held without bail following an alleged stabbing in Jamaica Plain that left one woman dead.
Wilmary Mejia Matos was arraigned Monday in West Roxbury Municipal Court. She pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder and a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. A juvenile who is charged with murder and is between the ages of 14 and 17 is arraigned as an adult.
Prosecutors say Mejia Matos stabbed 21-year-old Brianna Brown and a 17-year-old during an incident on Saturday night near Woodside Avenue. Brown did not survive, and the 17-year-old suffered serious injuries but is expected to survive, The Boston Globe reported.
Advertisement:
Just before 5 p.m. Friday, Boston Police were called to respond to a stabbing at 5 Woodside Ave. But before they could respond, two victims with stab wounds ran into the police station located on Washington Street in Jamaica Plain, police said. Brown and the other victim were taken to local hospitals.
Assistant District Attorney Nathan McGregor said Monday in court that Mejia Matos was upset because her boyfriend sent “explicit” photos to the victims before the attack, according to the Globe. Mejia Matos took a bus from Dorchester to Jamaica Plain with two male friends, McGregor added. They reportedly both tried to talk her out of attacking the victims.
Advertisement:
But prosecutors said Mejia Matos could not be dissuaded.
“She made clear several times she was there to fight and she was determined to fight one or both of these people,” prosecutors said, according to footage taken by WHDH.
Both victims were stabbed in the neck, and Brown was also stabbed in the chest, McGregor reportedly said in court. After the incident, prosecutors said Mejia Matos and her boyfriend fled the scene and attempted to hide.
Officers caught up with Mejia Matos in the area of Glen Road, police said. She was transported to a local hospital, and was later arrested.
Police found a knife near her, and Mejia Matos suffered cuts on her hands consistent with an inexperienced person using a knife, McGregor said in court, according to the Globe.
“She kept asking me what happened, she wasn’t really sure,” Mejia Matos’s lawyer, Stephen Weymouth, told media members outside the courthouse. “She’s extremely remorseful. She’s 16 years old… I thought maybe a more appropriate initial charge would have been manslaughter, which would have been handled initially in the juvenile court, not the district court.”
Advertisement:
When asked about McGregor’s reference to explicit photos, Weymouth said that could have been part of Mejia Matos’s calculus, but does not necessarily mean she premeditated the murder.
“I guess that maybe could be part of the problem, maybe the reason for a fight or something like that,” Weymouth said. “But again, just because she went somewhere from point A to point B, maybe had a knife, did have a knife, but that doesn’t necessarily [indicate] premeditation for murder in my opinion.”
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com