Mattapan Murders Verdicts: Washington Found Not Guilty; Mistrial On Moore

Updated March 22, 2012

From left: lawyer Helen Holcolm, defendant Edward Washington, lawyer John Cunha, defendant Dwayne Moore and attorney John Amabile stand as the verdicts are read on Thursday in Boston. (AP/The Boston Herald)

A Boston jury has acquitted one man who was accused of gunning down three adults and a toddler during a drug robbery and deadlocked on murder charges against another.

On Thursday, Edward Washington was cleared of all charges against him, including four charges of murder.

Dwayne Moore was cleared of a cocaine trafficking charge, but the judge declared a mistrial after the jury deadlocked 11-1 on the other charges against him, including murder.

"I suspected that this might be one of the potential verdicts," said John Cunha, Washington's lawyer, "simply because I felt that there was reasonable doubt, I felt that they hadn't proved their case, but you know you really don't know until the magic words are spoken."

Said Moore attorney John Amabile, "His reaction obviously is great relief that he is not convicted of something he didn’t do and sent away for the rest of his natural life."

A court officer removes a spectator as the verdicts were read for defendants Edward Washington and Dwayne Moore Thursday. (AP)

Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley said that his office will re-try Moore.

"We will re-try Dwayne Moore, make no mistake about that," Conley said. "And we expect in the trial, in the second trial that will be held in the next few months, that we will hold him accountable for these heinous crimes. We always believed the evidence suggested firmly and strongly that Dwayne Moore was the executioner here.

"We always knew that the case against Edward Washington was not as strong as it was against Dwayne Moore," Conley added.

"We will fight this charge," Moore attorney Amabile said. "He completely denies any participation in this crime and I believe the evidence in this case fell woefully below the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

After the verdicts were read against Washington, at least two people were removed after a courtroom outburst.

Thursday was the jury's seventh day of deliberations.

Moore and Washington were on trial for the September 2010 shootings in the city's Mattapan neighborhood, horrific killings that shocked Boston. One victim survived and is paralyzed.

Defense lawyers challenged the credibility of the prosecution's key witness, who admitted taking part in the robbery, but said he left before the shootings.

With reporting by The Associated Press and the WBUR Newsroom

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This article was originally published on March 22, 2012.

Mattapan Murders