02-17-2012, 07:42 AM
and now a trial.
Mattapan ‘drug house’ no place for a tot
By Peter Gelzinis | Friday, February 17, 2012 bostonherald
They thought they’d braced themselves for a moment that took almost two years to arrive. But nothing could have prepared them for what they heard yesterday in a Suffolk County courtroom.
Chief homicide prosecutor Edmond Zabin opened the Mattapan Massacre trial with a harrowing description of a fusillade of bullets “raking” the bodies of Eyanna Flonory and her 2-year-old son, Amanihoteph Smith, “breaking his bones and shearing his blood vessels.”
It proved too much for Flonory’s family. Amid gasps and tears, they bolted from their front row seats in the packed courtroom and ran into the corridor.
Indeed, Zabin’s clinical account of the slaughter at the intersection of Woolson and Wildwood streets was more horrific than anyone could imagine. It even forced John Cunha, the lawyer defending Edward Washington, to jump out of his chair to yell, “Objection!”
Zabin spoke of a toddler who “knew nothing about drugs and the code of the streets,” a child snuffed out on the very cusp of his life by a “madman with a gun” who, in the midst of a murderous frenzy, did not neglect to shoot the little boy’s mother in the back of the head.
The most excruciating irony of this case is that little Amanihoteph Smith found himself inside what John Amabile, the lawyer representing alleged henchman Dwayne Moore, called “a drug house frequented by dope dealers and stickup guys.”
That was the condo at 23 Sutton St., where Eyanna Flonory’s doomed boyfriend, Simba Martin, allegedly built a flourishing drug operation.
In the days and weeks ahead, as we come to know more about all the people who found themselves at Martin’s condo, we may well be left to confront the awful question: What was an innocent 2-year old boy doing “in a drug house frequented by dope dealers and stickup guys?”
Eyanna Flonory’s loved ones could not bear to hear the ghastly details of her death. But as this trial moves forward, there will be other details and other questions that emerge. And, over time, they may prove even more painful.
At the heart of this tragedy is a young victim who had no business being anywhere near a drug emporium, where alleged assassins had come looking for dope and cold cash.
Ed Zabin was right. Amanihoteph Smith was an innocent who found himself in a hell where “he knew nothing about drugs and the code of the street.”
But there he was. He died along with his mother and her boyfriend. They were all marched out to the intersection of Woolson and Wildwood, their bodies “raked” with bullets over cash and drugs.
That obscenity is the true nightmare of the Mattapan Massacre.
![[Image: 619e30_021612murderar19.jpg]](http://multimedia.heraldinteractive.com/images/20120216/619e30_021612murderar19.jpg)
Emotions boil over in Suffolk Superior Court yesterday.
Mattapan ‘drug house’ no place for a tot
By Peter Gelzinis | Friday, February 17, 2012 bostonherald
They thought they’d braced themselves for a moment that took almost two years to arrive. But nothing could have prepared them for what they heard yesterday in a Suffolk County courtroom.
Chief homicide prosecutor Edmond Zabin opened the Mattapan Massacre trial with a harrowing description of a fusillade of bullets “raking” the bodies of Eyanna Flonory and her 2-year-old son, Amanihoteph Smith, “breaking his bones and shearing his blood vessels.”
It proved too much for Flonory’s family. Amid gasps and tears, they bolted from their front row seats in the packed courtroom and ran into the corridor.
Indeed, Zabin’s clinical account of the slaughter at the intersection of Woolson and Wildwood streets was more horrific than anyone could imagine. It even forced John Cunha, the lawyer defending Edward Washington, to jump out of his chair to yell, “Objection!”
Zabin spoke of a toddler who “knew nothing about drugs and the code of the streets,” a child snuffed out on the very cusp of his life by a “madman with a gun” who, in the midst of a murderous frenzy, did not neglect to shoot the little boy’s mother in the back of the head.
The most excruciating irony of this case is that little Amanihoteph Smith found himself inside what John Amabile, the lawyer representing alleged henchman Dwayne Moore, called “a drug house frequented by dope dealers and stickup guys.”
That was the condo at 23 Sutton St., where Eyanna Flonory’s doomed boyfriend, Simba Martin, allegedly built a flourishing drug operation.
In the days and weeks ahead, as we come to know more about all the people who found themselves at Martin’s condo, we may well be left to confront the awful question: What was an innocent 2-year old boy doing “in a drug house frequented by dope dealers and stickup guys?”
Eyanna Flonory’s loved ones could not bear to hear the ghastly details of her death. But as this trial moves forward, there will be other details and other questions that emerge. And, over time, they may prove even more painful.
At the heart of this tragedy is a young victim who had no business being anywhere near a drug emporium, where alleged assassins had come looking for dope and cold cash.
Ed Zabin was right. Amanihoteph Smith was an innocent who found himself in a hell where “he knew nothing about drugs and the code of the street.”
But there he was. He died along with his mother and her boyfriend. They were all marched out to the intersection of Woolson and Wildwood, their bodies “raked” with bullets over cash and drugs.
That obscenity is the true nightmare of the Mattapan Massacre.
Emotions boil over in Suffolk Superior Court yesterday.