A Massachusetts Suffolk Superior Court Jury has found Verna Sewell guilty of involuntary manslaughter against 74 year old Julius Scott. Sewell and Scott shared an apartment with each other in Dorchester, MA. Sewell was originally charged with second degree murder, but was found guilty of the lesser offense of involuntary manslaughter. The police found Sewell after the incident with blood on her clothing. Prior to trial, Sewell admitted to being with Scott, but she denied stabbing him.
Please read the Boston Globe Article below.
By Globe Staff
An elderly Dorchester woman was convicted this morning of the May 2009 stabbing death of a 74-year-old man in the apartment they shared in Dorchester, according to Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.
Verna Sewell, 65, was found guilty by a Suffolk Superior Court jury of involuntary manslaughter for the death of Julius Scott. She had been indicted on a charge of second-degree murder.
Sewell had been free pending the trial, but Superior Court Judge Frank Gaziano ordered her held once the guilty verdict was delivered. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday. The punishment for an involuntary manslaughter conviction can run from probation to 20 years in prison.
Police were alerted to the stabbing after Scott had called 911 to report that he had been stabbed “in the heart” by a woman who then left his apartment. He told a dispatcher he removed the knife from his chest.
Verna Sewell, 65, was found guilty by a Suffolk Superior Court jury of involuntary manslaughter for the death of Julius Scott. She had been indicted on a charge of second-degree murder.
Sewell had been free pending the trial, but Superior Court Judge Frank Gaziano ordered her held once the guilty verdict was delivered. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday. The punishment for an involuntary manslaughter conviction can run from probation to 20 years in prison.
Police were alerted to the stabbing after Scott had called 911 to report that he had been stabbed “in the heart” by a woman who then left his apartment. He told a dispatcher he removed the knife from his chest.
Scott was dead by the time police responded to his Talbot Street home. His cellphone and a bloody steak knife were found next to the chair.
A Boston police homicide detective, taking a break from the crime scene, came upon Sewell at a nearby bus stop. The detective recognized her as fitting the description of a woman who had been staying with Scott, and she had blood on her clothes.
Sewell then told police that she had been in the building with a man who struck her with a brick and that they struggled with a knife. In later statements, she said that Scott had been drinking and that he attacked her with a knife. She told police she never had control of the knife and that Scott was somehow stabbed in the struggle.
An autopsy indicated, however, that Scott died from a stab wound to his chest that was inflicted at a downright angle. He had also suffered a wound to his nose consistent with an injury from a sharp blade. Moreover, there was no sign of a struggle when first responders arrived in the apartment.
A Boston police homicide detective, taking a break from the crime scene, came upon Sewell at a nearby bus stop. The detective recognized her as fitting the description of a woman who had been staying with Scott, and she had blood on her clothes.
Sewell then told police that she had been in the building with a man who struck her with a brick and that they struggled with a knife. In later statements, she said that Scott had been drinking and that he attacked her with a knife. She told police she never had control of the knife and that Scott was somehow stabbed in the struggle.
An autopsy indicated, however, that Scott died from a stab wound to his chest that was inflicted at a downright angle. He had also suffered a wound to his nose consistent with an injury from a sharp blade. Moreover, there was no sign of a struggle when first responders arrived in the apartment.
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