Grandmother of slaying victim challenges judge

RANDOLPH -- The grandmother of a 17-year-old who was shot to death Wednesday evening at a gas station challenged a judge during the arraignment yesterday of another teenager in the killing.

Malcolm A. Carnes, 16, of Randolph, was kept behind a door at the front of the courtroom so he couldn't be filmed and potentially influence witnesses at the request of his lawyer, John A. Amabile, during arraignment in Quincy District Court on charges of killing Ezekiel Cuthbert of Randolph.

Carnes pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, carrying a firearm without a license, and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building. He will be tried as an adult and could face a life sentence.

During the proceedings, which lasted about 10 minutes, Cuthbert's grandmother raised her hand and burst out: "Excuse me, your honor."

When Judge Mary Hogan Sullivan tried to silence her, she replied: "Well, he killed my grandson."

"Well, I'm going to hold him in custody without bail," Sullivan said.

"But why is his lawyer trying to hide him?" she asked and then left the courtroom.

On Wednesday about 5 p.m. near Route 28, Carnes allegedly approached Cuthbert and lifted his shirt to show a handgun, according to the Norfolk district attorney's office. Carnes chased Cuthbert to a gas station on North Main Street, where Carnes raised the firearm and fired a single shot, according to the district attorney's office. Cuthbert was taken to Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, where he was pronounced dead at 6 p.m., according to the district attorney's office.

District Attorney William R . Keating said in a phone interview last night that the teens knew each other but investigators had not determined a motive for the shooting. The teenagers had argued beforehand, but the nature of the dispute was still being investigated, Keating said.

"It was a violent, senseless act that's indicative of, I think, what's becoming more commonplace -- bravado," he said.

Carnes was arrested early yesterday at his grandmother's house in Mattapan.

Carnes's supporters who sat with his 15-year-old girlfriend, Ashley Celester, in the courtroom said he was the kind of teenager who would take out a relative's trash or buy Pampers for the 6-month-old he had fathered with her.

Celester said she met Carnes at a local field where he was playing football. One year later, she gave birth to their daughter, Neveah.

"He's just a good father," Celester said. "He makes her laugh. He makes her smile."

Celester said Carnes planned to start GED classes next month and hoped to enter college.

According to a police report, Carnes was employed at New Beginnings Academy and was a ninth-grade student at Randolph High School.

After the arraignment, Cuthbert family members gathered around a table on a deck off their one-story home on Lafayette Street. They declined to comment.

"They pretty much stayed to themselves," said neighbor Raymond Yancey, 59, adding that he only learned that they were the victim's family after watching the news on television.

A probable cause hearing has been scheduled for July 26.

April Yee can be reached at ayee@globe.com.