Rival charged with killing teen passenger on T bus
Gunfire followed taunts; bail set at $750,000
Stuck in late-afternoon traffic near a major Dorchester crossroad, the MBTA bus was under attack by a furious group of teens, pounding on its side as they exchanged insults with Dwayne Graham and several friends, authorities said.
Moments later, Graham, 18, crumpled to the floor of the Route 23 bus, hit in the head by a bullet fired through a window. It was about 3:30 p.m. on March 30, 2007. Graham died one day later.
Yesterday, 19-year-old Jonathan S. Sanders stood with a blue sweater draped over his head, charged with murdering Graham as part of a simmering feud between two groups of young men from different parts of the city.
"The groups were well known to each other prior to this incident," Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Mark Hallal said during Sanders's arraignment in Dorchester Municipal Court, attended by the mothers of the victim and the suspect.
"I just pray for my family and I pray for his family, too," said Dorese Graham following the arraignment. "I lost mine. . . . He's living. . . . I have to go to the grave to see my son."
Boston police, some wearing T-shirts identifying themselves as members of the Gang Unit and the Youth Violence Strike Force, reinforced court officers inside the courthouse during the tense arraignment at which relatives of Graham and Sanders ended up intermingling in the courtroom.
Hallal told the court that Graham, his brother, and friends got on the bus at the Ruggles MBTA Station and had ridden past the intersection of Blue Hill Avenue and Castlegate Road - where Sanders lives - without trouble. But as the bus worked its way down Washington Street toward the intersection with Columbia Road, Hallal said, a group of between 5 and 20 teens began their assault on the bus. When Graham refused to leave the bus, the fatal shot was fired, he said.
A state trooper working a paid detail at a state agency rushed over to help Graham, who was taken to Boston Medical Center, where he died.
Hallal did not say how authorities linked Sanders to the shooting. The prosecutor told the court that a grand jury investigation into Graham's death was active.
Graham's mother said she went to court because she wanted to see the face of the person who authorities say killed her son. She was upset by what she saw, she said.
"He had a smirk on his face," Dorese Graham said of Sanders. "I don't know this boy, I don't know his family. . . . I don't care if he grew up with my son, it don't give anybody the right to take a life."
Sanders's mother, Rona, left the court without speaking to reporters. A cousin, Teresa Mitchell, said Rona Sanders has been ill. She also said that the extended Sanders family was shocked upon learning this week that Sanders would be charged with murder.
"He's your average kid from the 'hood,' " she said. "I don't think it's possible that he did this. . . . I never thought he was involved, or any of his friends were involved" in Graham's shooting.
Sanders's defense attorney, Peter Marano, said in court that the case must be weak because Suffolk prosecutors have waited 18 months to charge him. Marano also said that police questioned Sanders's brother at the time of the shooting but never tried to speak with Sanders.
Judge Tracy-Lee Lyons set bail at $750,000 cash. She also sentenced Sanders to 18 months in the Suffolk County House of Correction for violating probation.
According to court records, Sanders, a brother, and his mother were charged with assault and battery on a police officer in September 2007 as police tried to calm a neighborhood following a shooting near their home.
Sanders was released from the Suffolk prison last month after being held for an unrelated matter and he was wearing an ankle bracelet. He was recorded stepping onto Castlegate Road six times, which he was forbidden to do because of the prior conflict, probation officer Katrina Higgins said in court.
Despite his attorney's argument that he was only there for a total of five minutes and that he may have strayed into the zone unwittingly, Lyons ruled that Sanders violated his probation.
Sanders is due back in court for the Graham case on Dec. 1. 