Man who shot into crowd, killing teenager, gets life prison sentence

A Mattapan man who shot into a crowd of partygoers outside a Roslindale baby shower four years ago, killing a teenage bystander, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison without parole.

The case so moved the jurors that all 14, 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."

Madeline Tejada, 27, the girlfriend of Romero's older brother, read a statement to the court on behalf of the family before the sentencing.

The death of Romero, a graduate of Boston English High School who took technical classes during the day and parked cars at night, plunged his mother into such grief that she still sees a therapist, Tejada said.

"A mother never expects to bury her child," Tejada said, as Romero's mother, Milagros Warner, 52, sat in the front row. "She would rather have her son be sitting in the defendant's chair right now, than where he is today."

Holding a photo of Romero, Tejada described him as a loving, ambitious man who was especially protective of his little brother, Juan Arias, now 12.

"His memory will always live with us," she said, as Diaz sat at the defendant's table, his hands in handcuffs. He declined to make a statement before the court.

Judge Janet L. Sanders called Romero's killing a senseless act and said he died for a "small and insignificant" reason.

Jurors approached Romero's mother and brothers after the sentencing and shook their hands.

For many, MacIsaac said, the five-day trial had been harrowing, particularly the testimony of Romero's childhood friend, who was with the victim when he was shot, and called 911.

His testimony and the tape of that call, in which Romero's friend frantically begged the operator to send an ambulance quickly, caused many jurors to break into tears, said MacIsaac.

"That was very, very tough to hear, " he said.

The case had been tried in 2006, but resulted in a hung jury. Conley said he was grateful that this time the jury returned with a guilty verdict, which came less than a month after Ablode Ahiahornu of Mattapan was acquitted of killing a 20-year-old Hyde Park man. The first trial for Ahiahornu ended in a deadlock last June.

That case followed four other murder cases Conley's office lost since the beginning of April.

Conley praised yesterday's jury, which spent a day deliberating, and said he was moved by their appearance at the sentencing. It is unusual for an entire jury to show up, he said.

"We're always relieved and pleased that a jury plays close attention to evidence and follows the facts and applies the law," Conley said.

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.