Thursday, 4:30 PM
Gunman sentenced to life for murder
By Maria Cramer, GLOBE STAFF
A Mattapan man who shot into a crowd of partygoers outside a Roslindale baby shower four years ago, killing a teenage bystander, was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole.
The case so moved the jurors that all 15, including the three alternates, sat in the courtroom along with the victim’s mother and brothers to witness the sentencing of David N. Diaz, 25, for the murder of Quirico Romero, 19.
"We were all emotionally involved in the case," said jury foreman Hugh MacIsaac, 34. "We just wanted to see it to the end."
Romero, decided to go to the baby shower instead of a downtown club in March 2003, his friends said. Shortly after midnight, he was outside American Veterans Post 1 on Belgrade Avenue, when Diaz and another man began fighting.
Diaz, who is also known as David Nicanor Diaz Perez, saw the man drinking a beer outside the hall and told him to stop. When the man ignored him, kept drinking the beer, and then threw the can away, Diaz became livid and accused the man of throwing the can at his car, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a telephone interview.
Diaz pulled out a .380-caliber handgun and fired one shot into the air, sending several partygoers, including Romero, running. Then Diaz fired into the crowd, shooting Romero in the back. The bullet pierced Romero's lung, and he was pronounced dead at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Conley said it was unclear whether Romero knew Diaz or the man with whom he had been fighting.
"He was a completely innocent victim," Conley said. "He had nothing to do with this."
