Crime

Man convicted in 2021 ‘racially motivated’ road rage murder sentenced to life in prison

Dean Kapsalis, who was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Henry Tapia, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 15 years.

January 17, 2024

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The Hudson man who was convicted last May of second-degree murder for striking and killing another man during a 2021 road rage incident that prosecutors said was “racially motivated” was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years, The Boston Globe reports.

The verbal confrontation on Upland Road in Belmont over turn signals quickly escalated on Jan. 19, 2021 when Dean Kapsalis, 57, hurled a racial slur at 34-year-old Henry Tapia, a Black man from Boston, before hitting Tapia with his pickup truck. Kapsalis fled the scene, leaving Tapia in the roadway with life-threatening injuries.

Tapia died at Massachusetts General Hospital, leaving behind a partner and three children.

According to the Globe, before delivering the sentence on Wednesday, Judge David A. Deakin stressed his decision had to be “proportional to the crimes committed,” the sentence “must first and foremost take into account the loss of Mr. Tapia’s life.”

Addressing Kapsalis, he said despite letters of support from friends and family, “your record reflects essentially a lifelong tendency toward violence.”

“My hope for you is that you use the experience of incarceration to commit yourself to truly becoming the man your family and friends believe you to be,” Deakin said, according to the Globe.

Kapsalis has already served just shy of three years in jail, making him eligible to go before the parole board in roughly 12 years, according to the Globe. Before he was sentenced, the 57-year-old said he was “truly sorry this extremely tragic event ever happened.”

“I regret my choice of words that day. … Language like that is disgraceful, and I am very ashamed of myself,” he said, according to the Globe.