Pair charged in Roxbury shooting death

A Suffolk County Special Grand Jury charged two men yesterday in the May 15 shooting death of a 20-year-old Roxbury man. The jury charged Antonio Llamas, 19, with first-degree murder and unlawful possession of a firearm, and Nathaniel Greene, 22, with being an accessory to murder in the death of Jerome Wells, who was fatally shot in the neck May 15 on Warren Street in Roxbury.

Police are calling an assault on Monson Street in June a homicide. Michael Hansbury, a resident of Mattapan, died June 13, eight days after the assault. Officer Sharon Dottin, a police spokeswoman, said the city has logged 38 homicides so far this year, compared with 44 at the same time last year.

A 37-year-old South Weymouth man was injured yesterday morning after a brake drum from a truck smashed through his windshield as he drove through the Tip O'Neill Tunnel in downtown Boston. Justin Gatie was driving northbound south of Exit 23 when the accident happened. Police believe that the brake drum came from a tractor-trailer operated by Mark Duggan, 51, of Plymouth, said Trooper Thomas Murphy, a State Police spokesman. Gatie was in good condition at Massachusetts General Hospital. State Police are investigating the accident, Murphy said.

WALTHAM

A Nashua man was charged with armed robbery while masked after a Sovereign Bank at 1045 Trapelo Road in Waltham was robbed yesterday afternoon, police said. Waltham and Lexington police arrested Lawrence Mesite, 58, minutes after the robbery was reported. An undisclosed amount of money was taken from the bank. Sergeant Anthony Vazquez Jr. said a gun was recovered from Mesite's vehicle. Vazquez said he did not know whether the latest robbery was related to six others reported in Waltham, Newton, and Arlington in the past few weeks. FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said the agency believes that the same individual is responsible for all six of those robberies. Mesite was in Waltham's jail last night. Vazquez said Mesite would probably be arraigned today in Waltham District Court.

LOWELL

An 18-year-old Lowell man was convicted yesterday of first-degree murder by a Middlesex Superior Court jury. Juan Pagan was sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for the May 15, 2006, stabbing of Alexander Castro-Santos, 19, also of Lowell. Prosecutors said Pagan and Castro-Santos had a verbal confrontation at an apartment in Lowell, after which Castro-Santos apologized. Then Pagan, unprovoked, stabbed Castro-Santos with a military-style combat knife. "The defendant's actions are yet another disturbing example of a young person resolving a conflict through the use of weapons, showing absolutely no respect for human life," District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. said in a statement.

BATON ROUGE, La.

Louisiana State University's new system president will get $601,000 in pay and other benefits, almost 50 percent more than either he or LSU's retiring president is currently paid. The package for John Lombardi, former chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, was based what is paid presidents of state universities nationally, LSU chairman Rod West said Monday. At least 112 university presidents nationally receive $500,000 or more in pay and perks, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. A handful receive more than $1 million. Lombardi, 64, will start at LSU Sept. 1. (AP)

NASHUA, N.H.

A Massachusetts man was arrested at his Brockton home on charges he sexually assaulted two girls in New Hampshire. Police arrested 47-year-old Mark Kerner on Monday as a fugitive from justice. In New Hampshire, Kerner was arraigned on seven counts of rape. Authorities say the alleged sexual assaults happened between 1997 and 2006 with two girls between the ages of 7 and 14. They say Kerner and the girls knew each other. Kerner was transferred to New Hampshire and was charged with seven counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, which each carry a 20-year prison sentence. (AP)