Key prosecution witness, Kimani Washington, takes stand in Mattapan massacre trial

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff

Kimani Washington today identified accused murderer Dwayne Moore as the person who shot and killed four people, including a two-year-0ld child who was struck by gunfire while being held in his mother’s arms during the Mattapan massacre.

Kimani Washington was on the witness stand today in Suffolk Superior Court appearing as the prosecution’s star witness against his cousin, Edward Washington, and their mutual acquaintance, Moore.

In testimony laced with wisecracks and street slang, Kimani Washington has admitted to being a full participant in the armed robbery of Simba Martin, a drug dealer whom Moore knew, on Sept. 28, 2010.

But he has insisted he had no role in the murders, and that he even went out of his way to calm Eyanna Flonory who was with her two-year-old son, Amanihotep Smith, when the three armed men forced their way into Martin’s home.

“Ain’t nothing going to happen to you,’’ Kimani Washington said he told Flonory.

Kimani Washington said he guarded the victims -- all of whom were alive -- while his cousin and Moore loaded a stolen Ford SUV with the goods from the armed robbery. He then stepped outside.

He said Moore later told him that he “killed everybody,’’ Kimani Washington testified.

Moore later told him that he did not deliberately target the child, but did acknowledge shooting his mother.

“The way she was holding the baby, the baby must have gotten shot,’’ was the way Moore explained the killing of Smith, according to Kimani Washington.

Kimani Washington said he did not believe Moore’s claim. Later, when he learned from Boston police that the child had been shot along with the adults, Kimani Washington said he wanted to kill Moore.

The two men are accused of robbing, and then killing, Martin, 21 and Levaughn Washum-Garrison, 22, who was sleeping on Martin’s couch that night, and Flonory and her toddler son, Amanihotep Smith.

The night of the murders, he, Moore and Edward Washington drove to Martin’s home, he testified. Edward Washington drove the BMW that belonged to Kimani’s brother, Charles, who would not let Kimani drive because he knew Kimani had been drinking and smoking marijuana.

At the house, Kimani Washington said he was armed with a handgun and stationed himself as a lookout on a neighbor’s porch.

He testified that he saw Martin leave the targeted house and get into a Ford SUV being driven by another man. Kimani Washington said he approached the car. While holding a pistol on the two men, he ordered them to strip naked because he “wanted to make sure they had no weapons them.’’

Marcus Hurd, the sole survivor of the attack, was the second person in the SUV.

“ ‘Man, I am only here to buy some weed,’ ” Hurd said, according to Kimani Washington.

“Just keep cool and you will be alright,’’ Kimani Washington said he told the men.

But, according to Kimani Washington, moments later Moore suddenly appeared, grabbed Martin and marched him back inside -- with a gun pointed to the back of Moore’s head. Kimani Washington testified the gun -- he called them “hammers” -- looked like an Uzi submachine pistol and carried 33 bullets in its magazine.

Earlier today, Kimani Washington described his relationship with Edward Washington, his cousin, as “beautiful.’’ He acknowledged beating his cousin with a cane when they fought in the summer of 2010, but insisted their relationship was back to normal by the fall of that year.

“I still love him even to this day,’’ Kimani Washington said in court.

He also said that Edward Washington and Kimani’s brother, Charles, are close to each other. He described the two men as “Beavis and Butthead with alcohol.’’

Prior to Kimani Washington taking the stand, jurors and a courtroom crowded with relatives of the victims heard another harrowing account of what first responders saw as they arrived on the scene of the violence on Sept. 28, 2010 near the intersections of Woolson and Wildwood streets.

Robert Flater, a paramedic with Boston Emergency Services, described his treatment of the two-year-old Smith, who was alive, but suffering from a gunshot wound.

“I could tell he was breathing and I could hear a very faint whimper,’’ Flater said during testimony that once again drove some relatives out of the courtroom because of its graphic nature.