Thursday, 4:30 PM
Two found guilty in bus shooting that killed teen in 2005
By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
A jury found two young men guilty of murder today for a brazen afternoon shooting on a MBTA bus in 2005 that left a 17-year-old dead.
The jury deliberated for two days before convicting O'Neil Francis and Ivan Hodge, both 20, of second-degree murder and unlawful carrying of a firearm. Tacary Jones died on March 18 after being shot once in the chest as he was sitting on the Route 19 bus in Dorchester.
Three jurors wept after they delivered their verdict this afternoon in Suffolk Superior Court. The prosecution alleged at trial that both men were on the bus when the Dorchester teenager climbed aboard. At about 2:30 p.m. as the bus neared the intersection of Columbia Road and Geneva Avenue, the two men got up and got in a scuffle with Jones. During the fight, a single gunshot hit Jones in the chest and killed him almost instantly, prosecutors said.
None of Jones's relatives were in the courtroom today when the verdict was read. Family members of both suspects expressed disbelief at the finding of the jury, saying that there was no forensic evidence that linked either man to the crime.
Authorizes allege that Hodge and Jones had a bad history that stemmed from a fistfight in 2003. The feud resurfaced in December 2004, when a man formerly associated with Jones stabbed Hodge's younger brother to death outside of the Ruggles T station, police said.
Francis and Hodge were both 18-years-old at the time of the killing. Police arrested Hodge hours after Jones’s death; Francis was arrested more than a month later.
Both men face a mandatory life sentence with the possibility of parole after 15 years. Sentencing has been set for March 27.
