SALEM, Mass. — The grandmother of 16-year-old Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino took the witness stand on day two of the trial for the young man accused of murdering him.
The family had to sit through some very graphic testimony of how their loved one was not just killed, but according to prosecutors, also dismembered.
She sobbed on the witness stand as she described -- through an interpreter -- how much her grandson loved her.
The family of Viloria-Paulino took up the entire front row of the courtroom, sitting just feet behind the teenager accused of killing their loved one.
Prosecutors say Mathew Borges, who 15 at the time, killed his classmate over jealousy over a girl, then decapitated him and tossed his body in the Merrimack River in November 2016.
The victim's body was discovered by a man walking his dog nearly two weeks later on the banks of the river.
"I saw her really sniffing at the particular area, so I pulled her back and when I looked, I kind of second guessed myself," Omar Medina explained in court. "I thought I saw a dead body but wasn’t too sure because it was missing some limbs.”
Lawrence Police Detective Kevin Schiavone testified that shortly after Viloria-Paulino went missing, Borges told them that cuts on his hand were from a recent fight, then changed his story saying they were from a bike chain.
"It just took me back, 'why would you lie to me?' I don’t understand, we’re just having a conversation about these cuts.' Now it’s a thing and he said he didn’t want to get in trouble," Det. Schiavone said.
Borges is being tried as an adult. The trial resumes Thursday morning.
We're told Friday, jurors will likely visit the crime scene.