DEDHAM, Mass. — An emotional day in Dedham Superior Court as the retrial of Emanuel Lopes begins.
He is the man charged with murdering Weymouth Police Sgt. Michael Chesna and 77-year-old Vera Adams in July 2018.
This is Lopes’ second trial.
The first trial resulted in a hung jury when one juror refused to deliberate.
The new jury was picked in Bristol County and is bussed to Dedham from Taunton every day.
Michael Chena’s widow cried as she listened for a second time to McGuiness tell a jury the facts of her husband’s death.
Weymouth resident William McGuiness demonstrated for the jury how he saw Lopes stand over Chesna, after hitting him with a large rock, and then opened fire.
“Sir how many times did she shoot?” asked prosecutor Greg Connor
“A total of nine shots,” McGuinness testified. “He shot the officer five times in the head, three times in the chest.”
The basic facts of these murders, and what Lopes did, are not an issue in this trial.
But his frame of mind is.
The defense will argue that Lopes suffered mental illness for years.
And that he was not criminally responsible for his actions that day.
“July 15, 2018, was a tragic day. Two people were killed. Families lost their loved ones. People’s lives were forever changed. It was a day of tragedy and heartbreak. And a very mentally ill young man,” Defense Attorney Christine Feeney told the jury.
But prosecutors allege Lopes was simply angry with his girlfriend after she told him she had seen another man.
A new jury must now decide if Emanuel Lopes knew what he was doing when the murders took place.
On Thursday, the jury will be taken on a view of the crime scenes.
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