Man awaits verdict in basement slaying case

Four shot to death in Dorchester were aspiring rappers

Calvin Carnes Jr. (center), with lawyer Stephen Weymouth, at the defendant's 2006 arraignment in the quadruple homicide. (George Rizer/globe staff/file 2006)

The man accused of fatally shooting four men in a Dorchester basement because he wanted their guns now awaits a jury's verdict.

In closing arguments yesterday, defense lawyer Shannon Frison told jurors that prosecutors had not proved that Calvin Carnes Jr., 21, was at the scene of the crime, 43 Bourneside Street, on the night of the Dec. 13, 2005, slayings.

"The government has simply not proved beyond any reasonable doubt that Mr. Carnes was in the basement," Frison said in her closing argument. "None of the DNA at the scene matches Calvin Carnes."

But First Assistant District Attorney Josh Wall displayed a map of the Bourneside Street basement where the victims, who were aspiring rap artists, were killed. Because there were no signs of a break-in, Wall said, it was "absolutely certain" that someone who knew the victims fired 15 bullets into Jason Bachiller, 20; Jihad Chankhour, 22; Edwin Duncan, 21; and Christopher Vieira, 19.

"You not only know it's a friend; you know where he is, and you know his name," Wall told the jury. "It's Calvin Carnes."

Frison told the jury there was no reason Carnes would have killed his own friends, including Bachiller, whom he had asked to be his daughter's godfather.

"All of a sudden . . . that he just up and murdered his friends - it didn't make any sense at the beginning of the trial, and it doesn't make any sense at the end," Frison said.

Frison referred to Wednesday's testimony, when Carnes took the stand in his own defense and said he was selling marijuana the night of the killings. Carnes "smokes marijuana," she said. "He may smoke more than he sells. He is not a murderer."

Wall told jurors that Carnes was jealous of his friends. He said Carnes had moved away from Boston and returned to find his group of friends had moved on without him.

"They have girlfriends; they have a passion; they have things to do," Wall said.

Jury deliberations are scheduled to continue Monday in Suffolk Superior Court.

Maddie Hanna can be reached at mhanna@globe.com.