Trial begins in slaying that sparked Cape Verdean violence
(Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe/file)
Arnaldo Lopes at his arraignment in July 2007.
By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
The killing of Bobby Mendes during a brawl on Dorchester Street in October 1995 touched off a civil war in Boston’s Cape Verdean community, unleashing a wave of violence that has included two dozen slayings and some 70 shootings.
 Isaura Mendes |
Almost 13 years later, the trial began today of Arnaldo Lopes, the man who as a 17-year-old was accused of plunging a knife once into the chest of Mendes, piercing the 23-year-old's heart. After all that time and retaliatory violence, opening statements this morning in Suffolk Superior Court were sparse, matter-of-fact, and almost unemotional.
Lopes, now 30, has always maintained that he used the knife in self defense, calling police hours after the stabbing to say he was protecting himself. Lopes fled Boston and lived under an alias until his arrest April 30, 2007, at the Baltimore airport after disembarking from a flight from Jamaica.
Prosecutor Dennis H. Collins outlined the killing in his brief remarks this morning, warning jurors that there was no forensic evidence in the case built on the 13-year-old memories of witnesses. The feud began because Lopes believed that a member of Mendes's extended family had provided Boston police with evidence against him that lead to a gun charge.
Lopes spent much of Oct. 10, 1995, drinking, Collins said, and arguing with several people on Wendover Street. He got into a fist fight with one of Mendes's relatives and lost. In retaliation, Lopes pulled a knife and chased the man down the street, Collins said.
Bobby Mendes appeared on the scene and insulted Lopes, Collins said. Lopes allegedly came at him with the knife and stabbed him once in the heart.
"Bobby Mendes stood there for a moment or two before falling to the ground," Collins said.
Defense attorney Kevin J. Reddington did not dispute that Lopes used the knife against Mendes, but he maintained that his client was acting in self defense. He emphasized to the jury that Lopes was a "17-year-old kid" who weighed 130 pounds. Mendes was a 23-year-old man who weighed more than 200 pounds.
The defense attorney said that at the time of the stabbing, Lopes was surrounded by armed relatives of Mendes: One had a knife, another a club, and the third wielded a broken porch railing with a nail sticking out of it. Mendes was the aggressor, Reddington told the jury, and had tried to knock Lopes to the ground by kicking out his feet out from under him.
The victim's mother, Isaura Mendes, sat and listened to both lawyers. Since the death of Bobby Mendes, she has become an antiviolence advocate who has held peace vigils, marches, and given speeches urging young people to stop the bloodshed. In May 2006, Isaura Mendes lost a second son, Alex, 24, in a gang-related shooting, not far from where Bobby Mendes was killed.
This morning, Isaura Mendes declined to discuss the case.
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