A day after ShotSpotter detected 18 gunshots in seven seconds and police found a man fatally shot, a chilling text message was sent: “It’s complete.”
Three men have now been charged in connection with the Feb. 4 death of 33-year-old Mauricio Lawrence on Tennis Road in Mattapan.
At about 11:30 p.m. on Feb. 4, ShotSpotter detected 18 gunshots near 35 Tennis Road. Boston police responded and found Lawrence had multiple gunshot wounds. He died while being taken by Boston EMS to Boston Medical Center.
Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said the case is a “chilling sequence of calculated actions.”
About six hours before the shooting, video surveillance shows Jair Meeks, 24, entering Lawrence’s place of work to record him while two others waited nearby in a Honda Accord.
Once back in the car, the car’s dash cam recorded Meek tell Shovan Darby, 29, of East Weymouth, and Roberto Taylor, 29, of Dorchester, what to do leading up to the shooting, the district attorney’s office said. This included telling them to “wrap [the gun] up in a bag” to “try to catch the shells,” to put different tire rims on the Accord to alter its appearance and to use special tape to cover the license plate to make the vehicle harder to detect.
Darby and Taylor followed Lawrence in the Accord when he left work, officials said. As Lawrence neared his apartment door, Taylor approached from behind and fired, officials added. Taylor returned to the car and, with Darby driving, fled the area.
“It’s complete,” Darby sent Meeks in a text the next morning.
“This case presents a chilling sequence of calculated actions. It also provides an excellent example of investigators pursuing a criminal incident until every person who played a role is identified and brought forward to answer for their conduct,” Hayden said in a press release.
Meeks was charged in Suffolk Superior Court with one count of accessory before the fact. He was ordered held without bail.
Darby and Taylor were charged in Suffolk Superior Court with first-degree murder on May 8.
Meeks, Darby, and Taylor are all due back in Suffolk Superior on June 17 for pre-trial hearings.
