New York Man Guilty in Maverick Station Double Shooting
BOSTON, Aug. 14, 2018—An MS-13 gang member from New York was convicted today of shooting a rival and a bystander at the Maverick MBTA station, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.
After less than a day of deliberations, a Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted ROGELIO ALVARADO, 23, of two counts of assault and battery by discharging a firearm and single counts of unlawfully possessing a firearm and unlawfully carrying a loaded firearm. Jurors acquitted Alvarado of an additional count of armed assault with intent to murder. He faces sentencing at 11:00 on Aug. 20 in courtroom 815.
“Gun violence is the number one public safety threat facing Boston today,” Conley said. “If you pick up an illegal firearm, if you fire it in a public place, if you hit your target or a bystander or anyone else, we’re going to prosecute you. I want to thank the Boston and Transit police who responded to the scene and investigated the facts, the prosecution team who marshaled the evidence and the law for trial, the witnesses who stepped forward and testified to their observations, and the jurors who returned a fair and just verdict.”
During about three and a half days of trial, Assistant District Attorney Stacey Pichardo of the DA’s Gang Unit introduced evidence and testimony proving that Alvarado, a resident of Huntington, NY, had a gang-related conflict with a 29-year-old fellow passenger while traveling inbound on a Blue Line train on the afternoon of Jan. 19, 2016. The two men got off the train at Maverick Station.
Pichardo proved that Alvarado produced a firearm, sparking a physical altercation during which Alvarado shot the victim twice at close range. The victim was struck twice in the back. A second man, age 42, exiting the train at about the time of the conflict was struck as well, suffering a graze wound to the front of his head. Both men were transported to area hospitals and survived their injuries.
Pichardo introduced additional evidence that Alvarado fled the train station in a taxi and made his way back to New York. He was apprehended by Huntington Police on July 12, 2017, after driving the wrong way down a roadway and forcing other motorists off the road.
Edith Ayuso was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Pichardo was assisted at trial by Tiffany Albanese, a law student in the DA’s Gang Unit who served as second chair under Supreme Judicial Court Rule 3:03. Alvarado was represented by attorney John Tardif.
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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
