Jurors spent Thursday deliberating the charges in the trial of Emanuel Lopes, who is accused in the 2018 murders of a Massachusetts police officer and an elderly woman in the South Shore community of Weymouth.
Closing arguments wrapped up on Wednesday, leaving the jury to decide the fate of 25-year-old Lopes. Lopes was just 20 in 2018, when he was accused of murdering Weymouth police Sgt. Michael Chesna and 77-year-old Vera Adams.
The trial has been ongoing at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, although the jury was selected from a pool of residents from Worcester County.
Jurors heard testimony and evidence for three weeks but didn't come to a verdict Thursday. They did ask for at least 3,000 pages of medical records before suspending deliberations after three hours.
Lopes is accused of attacking 42-year-old Chesna with a rock while being arrested for driving erratically and vandalizing a home. Prosecutors said that during a struggle with the police sergeant, Lopes took Chesna's gun and shot him eight times in the chest and head. Lopes is then accused of shooting Adams, who was nearby in her home's sunroom.
Relatives and defense attorneys of Lopes have argued that he has severe mental health issues, and that he was psychotic when the ordeal happened. They said that the system failed to provide the help he needed.
During the course of the trial, jurors were taken to the neighborhood in Weymouth where the fatal shootings occurred and instructed to examine the locations referenced throughout the trial. These include the Queen Anne’s Gate Apartments in Weymouth where Lopes is accused of taking his then girlfriend’s white BMW, the intersection of Main Street and Columbian Street where he allegedly crashed into another vehicle, and Burton Terrace, where the shootings happened.
Witnesses also described during the trial the moments their paths crossed with the driver of a white BMW on the morning of July 15, 2018.
“As he was passing there were stones flying, a little bit of fishtailing in the car,” Kevin Pearson recalled. “He flew through the red light at Route 139.”
Prosecutors allege it was Lopes, then 20 years old, behind the wheel who crashed into another vehicle near South Shore Hospital and ran away.
William Kendall testified he was drinking coffee and reading the paper that Sunday morning when he heard a loud crash in his kitchen. He found a large rock on the kitchen floor with glass from the window scattered around.
“I dialed 911 and I heard what I took to be gunshots. I then laid down immediately and yelled to my wife, Judy, ‘Get down! Get down,’” said Kendall. “My fear was that she would look out the window to see what was going on.”
He said he counted four or five gunshots as he lay on the ground. Then he heard shouting outside.
“I recall the words were something to the effect, ‘Give up, you are surrounded.’ I heard no more gunshots, so I went upstairs and gave my wife a huge hug. It was an emotional time.”
William McGuinness said he was making coffee before heading to work when he heard the sound of glass breaking outside, about 7:42 a.m. He looked out the window and saw a man holding a rock over his head. He identified that man while testifying Monday as Lopes.
A Weymouth police cruiser pulled into his neighborhood and he said the man threw the rock at Chesna, hitting him in the head and knocking him to the ground.
“He proceeds to walk towards the back of the officer, standing over his head and began to shoot at him,” said McGuinness. “I believe it was five times in the face, three times in the chest.”
McGuinness said he ran into his house, screaming for his wife to help.
Amy McGuinness, a respiratory therapist, began chest compressions immediately but she said the officer’s airway was obstructed.
“There was blood all over his face and the right part of his skull, or his head, everything was exposed.”
She said more police officers responded. Some tried to assist her in attempting to administer an automated external defibrillator, while others went after the shooter.
“Gunfire started behind us. It was a very distinct pop,” Amy McGuinness said. An officer told them to get inside. “I looked at my husband and I said I'm not stopping.”
They said they continued chest compressions until EMTs arrived.
Lopes' ex-girlfriend, Mary Cronin, also testified during the trial, talking about their tumultuous relationship, plagued with concerns about his alleged infidelity and instability. At times she said she would buy him clothes, food, a cell phone, drive him to interviews and work, and let him sleep in her car.
“I noticed he was a lot more upset and angry when he was dealing with the struggles of homelessness,” said Cronin in response to questions from Tipton about his alleged history of mental illness.
She confirmed earlier testimony that Lopes talked about conspiracies, such as people in the government were Martians and that history was written wrong and needed to be re-written. Starting around July of 2018, she said he was experiencing more and more symptoms and seemed to be getting worse.
When they got back together in the summer of 2018, she said Lopes was upset when she told him that she slept with a former friend. That was the man who called Lopes hours before the shooting that claimed the lives of Chesna and Adams.
