A person already in state custody for second-degree homicide is dealing with new first-degree homicide costs in reference to the deaths of two homeless males greater than a decade in the past.
Based on Middlesex County District Legal professional Marian Ryan, old-school, shoe-leather policework led investigators to allege that convicted assassin Kevin Lino, 38, is accountable for the unsolved deaths of two males discovered lifeless greater than a decade in the past.
Gary Melanson, 54, was discovered lifeless underneath the Rogers Road Bridge in Lowell, in November of 2010, Ryan stated throughout a press convention held Tuesday. His physique had been severely battered, and was reported to police by an nameless caller. A health worker later dominated his reason behind dying as blunt pressure trauma, however the method of dying as “inconclusive.”
Two years later, Douglas Leon Clark, 30, was discovered unconscious on the banks of the Charles River in Cambridge, and later died.
Ryan stated the health worker would go on to find out an overdose led to his dying.
After greater than a decade of analyzing the information of the circumstances, conducting interviews with witnesses, and going over the proof, Ryan stated that investigators have been in a position to decide that Lino is accountable for the deaths of each homeless males — and that the brand new allegations are simply the newest in lengthy line of lethal violence introduced upon unhoused individuals and main straight to Lino.
Lino had beforehand pleaded responsible to the murder of a homeless man in Montana in 2013 and in 2018 was charged by authorities in Massachusetts for the 2012 deadly beating of 45-year-old Normand Varieur in Charlestown.
“These allegations demonstrate a very violent pattern of behavior, alleging a targeting of some of the most vulnerable members of the community,” Ryan stated.
Since 2019, Lino has been serving a life sentence for the Charlestown slaying and a concurrent 40-year-sentence for the conviction from Montana.
Based on Ryan, Lino was simply 23-years-old when he allegedly murdered Melanson over the follow of lighting camp fires to maintain heat.
Lino and Melanson have been each sleeping open air close to the Rogers Road Bridge in Lowell on the time, Ryan stated. Lino had apparently warned Melanson that beginning fires would draw the eye of police or hearth officers and ordered him to cease the follow. When Melanson didn’t adjust to Lino’s directions, Lino allegedly killed the older man after which desecrated his corpse.
“The allegation is that Mr. Lino rushed Mr. Melanson — who was much smaller and much older than he was — beating him and striking him repeatedly with a metal baseball bat. After he had inflicted some serious injuries, Mr. Lino then finished that attack by urinating on Mr. Melanson,” Ryan stated.
An obituary printed in 2010 signifies Melanson “handed away unexpectedly on Monday, November 29, 2010″ and was buried and not using a visitation being held.
By 2012, Lino was residing open air in Cambridge alongside Clark, Ryan stated.
Lino, Ryan stated, “had taken it upon himself” to push drug-addicted fellow unhoused individuals out of the world as a way to not entice the eye of authorities. Clark was ordered by Lino to cease his public use of medication, the DA stated.
Based on Ryan, when Clark didn’t adjust to Lino’s directions, the pair had a confrontation. It was then, Ryan stated, that Lino allegedly “resolved to punish Mr. Clark.”
Not lengthy after, Clark overdosed on heroin. Nonetheless, regardless of the health worker’s findings, the information present that Clark’s dying was no accident, Ryan stated.
Lino, Ryan stated, “made clear that his intent was to poison” Clark with the very medication he’d advised the person to not use.
“Mr. Lino, who was by that time 25-years-old, had given Mr. Clark a quantity of heroin of sufficient strength that he knew would cause a fatal overdose,” she stated.
DNA proof was not used to reach on the conclusion that Lino allegedly killed each Melanson and Clark, Ryan stated. Quite, it was an instance of the sort of work that investigators routinely leaned on earlier than the appearance of DNA forensics.
“This is really not a forensics case. It is the result of investigations, development of leads, interviews, all of those pieces,” she stated.
Lino will ultimately be introduced from Suffolk County to Middlesex County to face the pair of first-degree homicide costs, Ryan stated, however a date has not but been set for his courtroom proceedings.
That is the second set of cold-case associated bulletins the Middlesex DA’s workplace has made in as many days.
On Monday, Ryan’s workplace indicated they’d secured responsible pleas on the remaining costs levied in opposition to Arthur Massei, 77, who was convicted in Might of 2024 for the 1971 homicide of Natalie Scheublin.
Massei has now additionally pleaded responsible to costs associated to tried extortion, loansharking, and threats of hurt or dying, in accordance with the DA’s workplace.
“While he was in custody facing a first-degree murder charge, Arthur Massei continued to pursue criminal schemes and to make threats of criminal violence to people in the outside world,” Ryan stated. “These deliberate and premeditated attempts to obstruct justice are serious crimes in their own right that strike at the very core of our legal system. Today’s plea underscores our unwavering commitment to holding accountable those who seek to manipulate the justice process, with the same focus and determination we apply to prosecuting the underlying offenses.”
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