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Teen gave up chance to see a Sox game to murder somebody in the South End; now he could spend the rest of his life in prison
By adamg on Tue, 07/30/2013 - 1:14pm
AriasRicardo Arias, 19, was sentenced to life in prison today for shooting a South End teen to death in September, 2011.
A Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted Arias last week.
Arias, a Roslindale resident with ties to Mission Hill, was spending time at a DYS center for troubled teens in Roslindale.
On the day of the murder, he'd been given a day pass and ticket to that night's Red Sox/Rangers game at Fenway Park, but, prosecutors say, he made his way to West Brookline and Tremont streets in the South End and started firing at another teen he thought was part of a rival gang based at the Villa Victoria housing project.
In fact, Alex Sierra, 18, had nothing to do with either gang and just happened to be in the wrong place. In court today, his mother gave a statement, the DA's office says:
My proudest moment as a mother has been collecting certificates of achievement, watching Alex get promoted to the fourth grade shortly after beginning third grade, and, as a teen, being a part of two MIT enrichment programs for talented students. We all knew Alex was truly talented, with plans to move far beyond a college education. According to one of his MIT program professors, "Alex represented the best of what kids can achieve."
NOTE: Although a first-degree murder conviction normally carries a sentence of life without parole, that doesn't apply in this case because Arias was a minor at the time of the murder, under a Supreme Court ruling last year. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is expected to rule on the issue later this year.
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Comments
I wonder
Does life without parole actually mean that in the Commonwealth? Can anyone with some insight tell us?
Also, I do wonder what wonderful commentary Nikka from mission can give us on the matter. Unless he/she/it is also incarcerated. Then we'll have to wait until your kite can make its way onto the internet.
Correction: He didn't get life without possibility of parole
Just life, because of his status as a minor. I've added a note to the original post.
Life without parole means life without parole
In Massachusetts, defendants convicted of first degree murder are sentenced to life without possibility of parole. First degree murder means murder "committed with deliberately premeditated malice aforethought, or with extreme atrocity or cruelty, or in the commission or attempted commission of a crime punishable with death or imprisonment for life." According to one recent survey, Massachusetts had 902 prisoners serving life without parole (out of a total prison population of about 10,000).
The governor may commute a sentence of life without parole but in practice that virtually never happens. (Jane Swift was the last Mass. governor to grant a pardon, in 2002.)
An exception: Under a recent Supreme Court decision, juveniles may be sentenced to life, but not life without possibility of parole.
Cute kid. I'm sure his celly
Cute kid. I'm sure his celly is going to think the same thing. Have fun Ricky!
Please do tell us
... all about what doing hard time is like. You sound like you know it quite well.
Nobody deserves to be raped
tcf098, nobody deserves to be raped. Talking like that makes it sound as though you are proud of prison rape.
Nobody deserves to be killed
Nobody deserves to be killed either, especially for such a meaningless reason. And yes, this guy does deserve to be raped in prison. Repeatedly, on a daily basis.
Thanks for chiming in anons!
I'm not anon and I still
I'm not anon and I still think your comment is tasteless.
Tasteless? As though I were
Tasteless? As though I were trying to win a Pulitzer with my prison rape comment? Come on, let's not get out of context here!
Sorry you were offended by the pixels on your screen. Seems as if you're that easily upset, you should probably stay off the internets.
Not the pixels - you
Not owning up to your own statements/actions? Taking pleasure in the thought of others' suffering? Thinking that people who dislike this are over-sensitive and weak?
I wouldn't be surprised if Ricardo Arias has the very same attitude. Hopefully your impulse control is better.
Let's review, shall we?
Firstly, lets read back a bit. Not once did I mention "prison rape" in my original comment. All I said was that his celly would probably find him cute. Twist that into whatever you wish, but it wasn't I who first mentioned the "R" word. And I'm the insensitive one?
I completely owned the comments I made, so if you missed it the first time, I'll reiterate: Mr. Arias deserves whatever is coming his way in prison. I was simply being realistic, and being somewhat tongue-in-cheek, which seems to get missed a lot with readers here. I'm not sure if it's a lack of humor, or that some people take things WAY too seriously, but either way it's ridiculous the way some commenters respond with such harsh criticism. Lighten up, people.
It's individuals like you, Jeff, who don't seem to understand that these types of criminals are savages and don't react or respond to what you deem as "proper and civil punishment". But thats a conversation for another day.
Most importantly, comparing my comment to that POS's murderous actions is pretty ridiculous as well. And it shows just how disconnected and ignorant you really are.
False
Serial rapists deserve prison rape.
No, they deserve prison
They deserve to be powerless and profoundly alone for the rest of their life.
I totally get the emotional appeal of wishing a similar fate on those who commit heinous acts. That wish has probably occurred to nearly everyone at one time or another. But it's not a good idea.
The idea that there's any such thing as a deserved or legitimate rape plays dangerously close to the rationalizations of the sociopaths who commit this crime in the first place. And it would make us - the vast majority of folk who are decent and civilized - complicit, perhaps unwittingly, in system of cruelty and arbitrary revenge, not justice. The Founders knew what they were doing when they drafted the Eighth Amendment.
I totally get the emotional
Yeah, neither is this:
Leaving criminals profoundly alone for the rest of their lives? Wouldn't that be worse than a death sentence? Your idea of "reform", is pretty skewed, I must say. I would consider your method a true form of torture, not civil punishment.
Again, regarding the prison rape thing, you're describing it as if it's actually part of the prison sentence, when it's actually just a byproduct of the reality that occurs when you lock a bunch of savage criminals in a box together. I doubt anyone here is condoning prison violence. But to shame it and act like it shouldn't be happening seems pretty naive.
no, they don't.
we, as a society, need to be breaking down rape culture and not making it a logical conclusion to any scenario. more rape doesn't solve rape, and it certainly doesn't help rape victims. and i say this *as* a rape victim. we need to stop thinking about rape as a punishment or as a tool that leads to some sort of vigilante justice. there is never anything just about rape.
When you use key statements like
"We, as a society" and "rape culture" we know you're so far left (not that im far right) that rational went out the window long ago.
also...
"vigilante justice"
If you do the crime, you do the time..... Prison ethics are not the same as the ethics we hold as functioning, free members of society.
I am unclear on the correlation...
... between accepting and understanding rape culture, and my personal politics or my ability for rational thought.
i have no problem with prison stints for violent crime. but I personally believe that time should not be rapey pit of hell. we should not condone folks wishing sexual assaults on other people and accepting this behavior as justified.