No bail for defendants in Luis Gerena slaying
By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff
Two teenagers were ordered held without bail today after being arraigned in Roxbury District Court on murder charges in the January 2007 slaying of 13-year-old Luis Gerena.
A Suffolk County prosecutor said that Nurudeen Alabi, 19, and Darrell Rodrigues, 17, both of Roxbury, were gang members who encountered Gerena as he left the Jackson Square MBTA station on Jan. 12, 2007.
Alabi and Rodrigues asked Gerena, who lived in Jamaica Plain, if he belonged to a rival gang and then demanded his cellphone, telling him to “Hurry up, dog,” said prosecutor Mark Hallal.
The prosecutor said Gerena was then shot at least five times, the bullets piercing his kidney, liver, and heart.
As Hallal described Gerena’s death, the boy’s mother, Wendy Jiminian, began sobbing uncontrollably and had to be escorted out of the courtroom. Supporters of the defendants sat silently and stoically.
Defense attorneys for Alabi and Rodriguez, who also face firearms charges, asked the judge if they could argue for bail at a later date when they had more time to prepare their cases.
At least two dozen friends and relatives attended the hearing to seek justice for Gerena, whose death sent shock waves through the community.
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