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Woman facing first-degree murder charge in fatal Roxbury park stabbing
Rasheedah Hughes is accused of killing 65-year-old Celia Simmons last month in broad daylight.
A Boston woman pleaded not guilty to a first-degree murder charge Monday as prosecutors accused her of fatally stabbing a homeless woman in a Roxbury park last month.
Rasheedah Hughes, 40, answered the charge in the Boston Municipal Court’s Roxbury division, where she was ordered held without bail. She’s accused of killing 65-year-old Celia Simmons in broad daylight at Ramsay Park Nov. 16.
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Officers responded to the reported stabbing around 12:48 p.m. and found Simmons suffering from multiple stab wounds, the Boston Police Department previously said. She died hours later.
Prosecutors say Hughes and Simmons had gotten into an altercation at the park earlier that day, with Hughes allegedly brandishing a box cutter and Simmons hitting her with a cane, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
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Hughes left the park and later returned “carrying what witnesses described as a large knife” before allegedly stabbing Simmons repeatedly, the DA’s office said.
“This appears to be a middle-of-the-day altercation that went to the very worst of extremes,” Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement. “As we see time and again, this type of quick, careless decision-making ends lives and ruins others.”
According to prosecutors, investigators identified Hughes through eyewitnesses, video, and “various circumstantial means.” Members of the Boston Police Department’s Fugitive Unit arrested Hughes Friday afternoon in the vicinity of Hammond Street, a short distance from the park.
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Reached by phone Tuesday, Hughes’s lawyer declined to comment on the case.
Simmons, who also went by “CeCe,” was living at the Woods Mullen Shelter for homeless women at the time of her death, The Boston Globe previously reported. Friends who spoke to the Globe described her as someone who faced many personal difficulties but remained kind to others.
“My sympathies go out to the family and friends of Celia Simmons as we begin the process of seeking accountability for the person charged with her death,” Hayden said.
Hughes is due back in court Jan. 23 for a probable cause hearing.
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