Baltimore murderer arrested for 2004 stabbing of gay man on a 39 bus

A man arrested but never tried for stabbing and spitting on a man on a 39 bus in Jamaica Plain in 2004 will finally face charges after police tracked him to his new home in Roxbury.

Michael Hughes, 64, never went before a jury because not long after his arrest, he was turned over to Maryland authorities to face trial on charges he killed a man preparing Christmas baskets for the poor in 1974. Convicted of second-degree murder in 2005, he spent three years in a Maryland prison, then at some point after his release came back to Boston.

According to a report by MBTA Transit Police, Hughes went berserk on a 39 bus at South and Centre streets around 4 p.m. on Sept 5, 2004 when he thought the "openly gay" man behind had deliberately kicked his seat. He allegedly whipped out a knife and began slicing the man's arm as he also spit at him and began screaming anti-gay epithets at him.

Boston Police first noticed Hughes was back in town last fall, Transit Police report: A Boston Police detective noticed a man he thought was Hughes in a homeless shelter on Massachusetts Avenue in November.

But Hughes evaded the two police forces until yesterday, when the same detective spotted him entering 6 Hartford St. in Roxbury. He alerted Transit Police, who found a default warrant for the 2004 attack and sent several detectives and officers to the address yesterday afternoon.

Police say Hughes tried to slip out the back door and then by denied any knowledge of the 2004 incident or of the alias he used at the time. His tattoos and physical characteristics, however, did him in, police report.

Innocent, etc.