Latest news with #Boyette
Boston Globe
24-06-2025
- Boston Globe
Roxbury court officers let a wanted man walk free. Three weeks later, he allegedly killed a woman.
The disclosure was among several listed in court records and other public documents reviewed by the Globe that raise troubling questions over why Boyette was allowed to remain free in spite of a history of crime and violence. Boyette, a 36-year-old Roxbury man, had a lengthy record of aggravated assault and domestic violence charges, including allegations that he abused his girlfriend and threatened her family with a knife and that, in a separate incident, he groped a woman before stabbing her cousin. Boyette allegedly killed Tatyiana Flood on May 19, according to prosecutors. Police had responded to a call the following morning of the body of a woman found in a wheelchair, in the parking lot of the Alice Heywood Taylor Advertisement Officers reviewed surveillance video that allegedly showed Boyette beating Flood with a hammer in the back seat of the Jeep, then dragging her body into a nearby wheelchair and fleeing the scene, according to a police report. Officers arrested Boyette on May 22. He was arraigned on a murder charge in Roxbury District Court and pleaded not guilty. He was held without bail. Advertisement Three court officers have been placed on paid administrative leave in connection with the failure to apprehend Boyette and are awaiting disciplinary hearings, Trial Court spokesperson Jennifer Donahue wrote in an email last week. 'This matter is under investigation at this time,' Donahue wrote. 'The Trial Court can't comment on personnel matters.' Family members of Flood declined to comment when reached by phone. Boyette's lawyer for the murder case also did not return a request for comment. Little is known about the relationship between Boyette and Flood. Her mother, Lilly Flood, Retired Superior Court Judge Jack Lu, who reviewed records of the incident at the Globe's request, said allowing Boyette to leave was a 'major error' unlike any he could remember from his two decades on the bench. But he cautioned against assigning blame before the investigation is complete. 'The murky description of the front lobby procedure is written by a clerk, not a court officer,' Lu wrote in an email. 'It should be viewed with a grain of salt, as should all accounts in a critical incident investigation.' The court officers union did not respond to a request for comment. Separately, Boyette faced assault charges in two other cases, but they were dismissed this year after prosecutors reported they were not prepared to go to trial. Advertisement James Borghesani, a spokesperson for the Suffolk district attorney's office, wrote that the two assault cases were dropped because the victims did not appear in court to testify. In one 2019 case, which was scheduled for trial in February, Boyette allegedly threatened a woman with a knife and threatened to 'shoot up the place.' In the other, Boyette was supposed to face trial in March for allegedly groping a woman last year, stealing her phone, and stabbing her cousin when he tried to intervene. In an interview, the woman allegedly groped by Boyette acknowledged she was reluctant to testify — but also said she was unaware of the March trial date and had never received an order compelling her to appear in court. 'They should have never let him go,' said the woman, a Roxbury mother who said she and Boyette grew up in the same neighborhood. The Globe is not identifying her because she is an alleged victim of sexual assault. She said she had not wanted to testify because she wanted to move past the incident, was focused on raising her new child, and feared retaliation from Boyette's associates in her neighborhood. She had heard about Flood's killing, but sounded shaken when a Globe reporter told her Boyette was allegedly responsible. 'It does upset me that I could have testified and kept [him] in there,' she said. In an email, Borghesani wrote that prosecutors had made multiple efforts to contact her, including issuing a summons, and that a judge had denied a request to continue to a later trial date. 'Our advocates made many attempts to contact this victim in the months, weeks, and days leading up to the trial date,' Borghesani wrote. Advertisement Rachel Wechsler, an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Law who studies gender-based violence, said victims of violent crime often report low levels of satisfaction with the criminal justice system. Incidents like officers failing to arrest Boyette before he allegedly committed murder risk further damage to that relationship, she said. 'It certainly can affect the opinion of the competency of people in the system,' Wechsler said. 'It sounds like from the report that there was either a failure of communication or a failure of court officers to carry out their duties.' Victims of violent crime are often reluctant to testify for a variety of reasons, Wechsler added, from a desire to move on, to fear of retaliation, to the risk of retraumatization when cross-examined and confronted with their attacker in the courtroom. 'It can be a very unpleasant experience for a witness,' she said. Boyette's path to his alleged murder of Flood can be traced through hundreds of pages of court records, covering more than a decade of arrests, convictions, dismissals, and acquittals in Roxbury. In 2006, at age 17, Boyette was convicted of carrying a gun without a permit and sentenced to 30 months in jail, according to probation records. Three years later, he allegedly stabbed a man in a brawl outside the Suffolk Superior Court. He was charged with attempted murder and assault with a dangerous weapon, though prosecutors later wrote they dropped those charges because they had not completed their investigation of the courthouse fight, according to a motion from the prosecution. And in 2013, Suffolk prosecutors indicted Boyette on new gun charges after police found a gun in the glove box of a car where he was a passenger. He was later acquitted by a jury after his attorneys argued that police could not prove Boyette knew the gun was there. Advertisement The next year, Boyette was convicted of violating an ex-girlfriend's abuse prevention order and sentenced to a year in jail. In 2017, he was convicted of federal charges of possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute. After his prison term ended, he was arrested in Roxbury for allegedly attacking employees at a pizza shop when they refused him service — a violation of his probation, which led a federal judge to send him back to prison for 17 months. In 2021, Boyette's then-girlfriend invited him to her family home. Her brother told Boyette he was not welcome because he had abused his sister. In response, Boyette drew a knife, according to court records. The family called police, who allegedly had to wrestle Boyette into handcuffs as he tried to enter the home. Boyette was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery on a police officer. It was for that case that he appeared in the Roxbury court on April 29, when court officers failed to take him into custody. Boyette lived in an apartment in the Alice Taylor housing development where Flood was found , according to court records. Matilda Drayton, president of Alice Taylor's local tenant organization, said she did not know Flood or Boyette, but that the killing on her neighbors' doorsteps had cast a pall on the development. 'People bring tragedy to our neighborhood, and it puts a damper on our community,' Drayton said. 'Every time something happens in our neighborhood, we are affected.' Advertisement Dan Glaun can be reached at
Boston Globe
30-05-2025
- Boston Globe
Man accused of fatally beating woman in Roxbury ordered held without bail
Prosecutors said investigators obtained security video that shows Boyette and Flood getting into a Jeep parked in front of the apartment complex at 6:43 p.m. on May 19. A little more than an hour later, the driver's side door opens and Boyette 'is observed swinging what appears to be a hammer in downward motion in the backseat of the vehicle,' prosecutors said in court records. About two hours later, at 9:49 p.m., the video allegedly showed Boyette get out of the Jeep and pull Flood's 'motionless, seemingly unconscious body' from the vehicle, prosecutors said. Advertisement 'The victim's body falls to the asphalt ground and the suspect delivers a kick to it,' prosecutors said. Prosecutors said Boyette placed Flood in the backseat and then got back into the car. Around 5:30 the next morning, Boyette and another person were seen taking Flood out of the vehicle again and placing her in a nearby wheelchair, before leaving the area, according to prosecutors. Advertisement Prosecutors said an autopsy revealed that Flood sustained multiple injuries to her head and body 'consistent with blunt force trauma.' Boyette's attorney, Timothy Bradl, said his client maintains his innocence. Prosecutors did not say how Boyette and Flood knew each other. Boyette has other open cases against him, including charges of assault and battery on a police officer and assault with a dangerous weapon. He was slated to stand trial on April 29 but did not appear in court, prosecutors said. Nick Stoico can be reached at
CBS News
18-04-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Fight against squatters could bring faster evictions for all Texas renters
The fight against squatters in Texas could soon affect every renter in the state. Lawmakers are considering SB 38, the so-called squatters bill, which would allow landlords to evict someone without a trial in as little as 10 days. State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, the bill's author, said squatters don't have rights. He points to a case in Mesquite as an example. The homeowner, Terri Boyette, said her handyman moved in while she was out of town and took over the home. When she called the police, Boyette said she was told it was a civil matter. "I'm trying to live the American dream and somebody can walk in and destroy everything I have," Boyette said. Bettencourt said his legislation is aimed at getting squatters out in less time, but critics say it will have devastating consequences for legitimate renters and could lead to increased homelessness. Dallas eviction attorney Mark Melton testified against the bill in Austin, calling it "extremely and obviously unconstitutional." Melton told lawmakers he believes the squatter issue has been overblown to make it possible to shorten evictions for all tenants. "You could evict a tenant in 10 days without a trial? How is there due process in that?" Melton asked. Lawmakers on the House Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence committee pushed back on his comments. "I don't want people to be kicked out on the streets - no one does," said state rep. Jeff Leach. "But to allow someone to go months and months and months and months without paying rent? To continue to be able to stay there on procedural grounds seems to me to be patently unfair and wrong." According to the current version of SB 38: Another bill, SB 1333, would make squatting a crime, meaning property owners could get police involved and avoid the eviction process altogether. The author, state senator Bryan Hughes, said the legislation is more narrowly tailored to address the squatting issue. "This bill would draw a distinction between folks who have overstayed their leases and not paid rent, and then those who just show up and occupy property without any legal basis whatever," said Hughes. The debate in Austin happened as an extreme eviction case played out in Dallas. It involved a couple living in a unit of a small apartment building on Gaston Avenue in east Dallas. The family that owned the property planned to sell the property, but could not go through with the sale until it was vacant. The family filed the first eviction case against Aries Mitchell in September of 2023. Mitchell and her husband, Robert Mullins, won the first case on a technical issue. The family then filed more cases, which the couple appealed, putting the parties in multiple legal battles. Mitchell and Mullins said they used to pay weekly, until the landlord stopped taking partial payments. Now she admits, the court filings are just a way to buy them more time in the apartment. "If I had money to go, I'd go," Mitchell said. "I do not want to be here. I'm only here because I don't have nowhere else to go." Mitchell had successfully appealed one of the eviction cases all the way up to the 5th Court of Appeals. Once that court set a hearing for April 29, the couple assumed that meant they were allowed to stay in the unit until at least that date. However, a separate case was still playing out in a Dallas County courtroom. "These tenants were always one step ahead," said Terry McAuley, a member of the family that owns the building. "They're up there reading books, following, like, 'what's another loophole? How can we continue staying in here for free?'" McAuley's sister, Kelly Medlock, echoed her frustrations. "They keep going to court appealing... and they keep getting granted," Medlock said. Last month a judge granted a writ of possession to the family. Twelve days later, the constable's office oversaw the eviction and Mitchell and Mullins were left sitting on the stoop with their belongings piled on the sidewalk, bringing an end to the 18-month fight. The shortest timeline for an eviction is typically 30 days , but the process can take much longer than that.
