BOSTON — A Suffolk County jury on Monday found a Canton man guilty of first-degree murder in the 2022 fatal shooting of 15-year-old Curtis Ashford Jr. in Boston.
Zontre Mack, 21, will be sentenced on Oct. 23, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement.
Ashford was shot dead when gunshots rang out in a Dorchester neighborhood on July 27, 2022.
A second man, Dominick Gavin, 27, of Boston, was also charged in connection with the fatal shooting.
Gavin pleaded guilty in August to one count of accessory after the fact. Judge Mary Ames sentenced Gavin to three to four years in state prison.
Surveillance video and witness accounts showed Mack and Gavin arriving in the Ellington Street area at about 7:30 p.m. on July 27, 2022 in a vehicle driven by Gavin, Hayden said.
Mack, who was 18 at the time of the shooting, then left the vehicle and fired multiple shots at a group of people, including Ashford, who were gathered on Ellington Street, Hayden said.
The group ran after gunfire erupted, and Ashford was shot while trying to get away, Hayden said.
Boston police located the vehicle driven by Gavin and gathered evidence, including DNA and fingerprints matched to Mack, Hayden said.
Hayden, who responded to the scene shortly after the shooting, on Monday praised investigators for their work on the case.
The district attorney also thanked the jurors for returning a verdict which he called “a measure of justice amid a mountain of sorrow” for Ashford’s family and friends.
“Losing someone so young to violence is a blow to the entire city. Every person who cares about the health of our neighborhoods and the safety of our young people—and that should be all of us—should be shocked, saddened and motivated to make things better,” Hayden said.
“But nowhere is Curtis’s loss felt more profoundly than by his family and friends, and they will always have our sympathy and our support,” Hayden said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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