A 40-year-old man on Thursday pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the March 2022 stabbing death of a marine veteran outside the Sons of Boston bar where he worked as a bouncer, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office announced.
Alvaro Larrama, of East Boston, entered the guilty plea in Suffolk Superior Court, where Judge Josh Wall sentenced him to 17-20 years in prison, Hayden’s office said in a statement. Larrama had previously been charged with murder in the stabbing death of Daniel Martinez, 23, a recently discharged Marine veteran who was visiting Boston with friends for St. Patrick’s Day weekend.
Laramma worked as a bouncer at the Sons of Boston bar, which has since been renamed to Loyal Nine, according to The Boston Herald. The stabbing occurred just before 7 p.m. Saturday on March 19, 2022.
Investigators said Larrama denied Martinez and a friend entry into the bar, but then followed them down the block. Video surveillance from the area showed Martinez “raising his left hand as if to defend himself” and then hitting Larrama in the head with an aluminum beer bottle, according to prosecutors. The footage then shows Larrama striking Martinez in the chest.
Police found Martinez suffering a single stab wound to the chest. He was brought to Massachusetts General Hospital and pronounced dead at roughly 7:30 p.m.
Larrama returned to the Sons of Boston, washed his hands, tossed away his sweatshirt and turned his shirt inside out, police said. He then left the bar via a back exit.
Many of Martinez’s family members delivered victim impact statements on Thursday in court, and Hayden said those “loving memories” show a “young man very loved and very missed, a person who served his country honorably and gave unselfishly to his family, friends and community at all times.”
“I extend my most sincere sympathies to Daniel’s loved ones and I thank them for their moving words today,” Hayden said in the statement.
Among those who submitted a victim impact statement to the court was Martinez’s twin brother, Matthew.
“Daniel was my twin, but he was also a big brother to me, and without his presence, every great experience will have a happiness cap,” Matthew Martinez wrote. “I will never be the same.”
Material from a previous MassLive story was used in this report.
