Cambridge man guilty in double slaying
A Cambridge man was convicted yesterday in the killings last year of an Allston cocaine dealer and a teenager who was visiting from New Hampshire.
Craig Smith, 38, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and a host of other charges, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a statement last night.
On that bitterly cold Sunday night, Julio Ceus, 33, and Natalie Sumner, 18, were killed in Ceus's Allston apartment. Investigators have said it was during a drug-related robbery.
During the trial, Assistant District Attorney John Pappas said Smith called Ceus twice on the night of the slayings to get him to open the door to his apartment.
When Smith and an unidentified gunman entered Ceus's apartment on Kelton Street, they forced four of the five occupants to the floor at gunpoint. They allowed an elderly woman to sit on a chair, witnesses testified.
Smith and his accomplice then demanded the victims' cellphones and money.
But, witnesses said, after they gave up their cash and phones, Smith demanded more. "That's not all there is," he said, according to witnesses. "You're lying."
Then, witnesses said, the pair began spraying the room with gunfire; Ceus and Sumner, who was dating Ceus's younger brother, were killed. A third person was injured.
Boston police built their case with surveillance camera footage showing Smith's 1991
Smith is to be sentenced next week.
