Prosecutor: Man accused of murdering South Boston woman was sane during brutal attacks
In less than 20 hours, Edwin J. Alemany went on a one-man rampage across South Boston, prosecutors said during the first day of his murder trial Wednesday.
In between those savage attacks, they said, he went about his business.
He bought booze, got lots of lottery tickets, paid off his girlfriend’s cellphone, and purchased one for himself. After an afternoon of drinking Coronas, he and some buddies went to a Chinese restaurant, ordered a pu pu platter and drank a rum drink called a Suffering Bastard.
Jeffrey Denner, Alemany’s attorney, is seeking a not guilty by reason of insanity defense. Alemany’s childhood included hallucinations, severe depression, and stints in psychiatric facilities.
“The issue is not so much what happened, but why it happened,’’ Denner said after court. Denner deferred his opening statement.
Prosecutor John Pappas detailed Alemany’s rampage across South Boston, which left one woman dead and two more injured, on July 23, 2013. The attacks terrified women across the city, with police telling those in South Boston to be wary of anyone who looked threatening.
“The evidence will show over the next two weeks (that the attacks) were carried out by one person, acting alone, acting with purpose, acting with clarity of mind,’’ Pappas said.
He gave the eight women and seven men of the jury this account:
At 4:30 a.m., Alemany picked his first victim, a 22-year-old woman walking to work. The young mother pleaded for her life.
“Bitch, you’re going to die today,’’ he told her, before letting her go.
An hour later, he grabbed Amy E. Lord, 24, as she walked out of her Dorchester Street apartment on the way to the gym. Alemany forced Lord into her Jeep Cherokee and drove her to five different banks, making her withdraw $960 in cash during a “terror ride’’ across the city.
Amy E. Lord
Her Jeep was found ablaze in South Boston. Lord’s body was found in the Stony Brook Reservation that afternoon.
Hours later, after spending Lord’s money, Pappas said Alemany saw a 21-year-old woman punching the code into her Gates Street building. He did a double take, turned around, and repeatedly stabbed the woman. She was able to free herself from Alemany and lock the door. She survived.
More than a dozen friends of Lord, who grew up in a small Western Massachusetts town and graduated from Bentley College, filled the rows of the courtroom, fingering tissues and playing with hair ties. They picked at nail polish and wiped their eyes as they listened to Pappas’ speak. Her parents sat in the front row, looking at the back of Alemany’s head.
One of Alemany’s surviving victims sat with her back straight, steeling herself against the prosecutor’s words. Her face occasionally crumpled, but she never sobbed.
Alemany has been in custody since the early morning hours of July 24, 2013, when he walked into Tufts Medical Center with a deep stab wound on his hand. In the same emergency department, the last victim, the 21-year-old woman who escaped, was in a trauma bay.
The woman’s roommate looked at him, looked at his hand. She texted a friend.
“I think he’s right next to me,’’ she wrote. “I think he’s here. I think it’s the guy.’’
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