Details in brutal 1984 Boston slaying are described

December 4, 2008 05:01 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

As the victim’s mother wept, a prosecutor today outlined more of the details of the savage killing of a Boston woman in 1984.

Hernandez

Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Cory Flashner described the homicide of Elsie "Yolanda" Hernandez during the arraignment of her alleged killer, Sultan Omar Chezulu, a convicted rapist who had changed his name from Robert Scott.

In Roxbury Municipal Court, the victim's mother and namesake, Elsie Hernandez, wept and covered her face with her coat in shock as Flashner described how her daughter had been beaten with a piece of concrete, strangled with an athletic sock, and raped on a December night.

The victim was found in a garbage-strewn lot in Roxbury. She was wearing the pink uniform of the department store where she worked.

Scott, a burly man with a shaved head and a goatee, said nothing during the 10-minute proceeding before Judge Edward Redd, who ordered Scott held without bail. Defense lawyer Denise Regan declined to comment after the arraignment.

After today's arraignment, the victim’s sister read a brief statement to reporters. She thanked the three Boston police detectives who investigated her older sister’s homicide and Flashner for continuing to hunt for her killer.

"At this moment my family will be reliving the brutal tragedy that we faced back in 1984," said the sister, Jessica Ruiz Hernandez. "However, we are grateful that they have a suspect and hopefully thi justice will be served for Yolanda Ruiz Hernandez.''

Police said DNA testing led them to Scott, a 60-year-old Georgia man who served time for rape, kidnapping, and sodomy in the 1970s and was released from a Massachusetts prison in 2004 after serving 14 years for attempted robbery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Investigators began to untangle the mystery in 2007. A homicide detective was reviewing cold cases and sent DNA that investigators had recovered from the scene in 1984 to a national database known as CODIS, for Combined DNA Index System.

A few months ago, detectives learned it matched that of Scott, who was forced to submit a DNA sample when he was released from prison in 2004.

Maria Cramer of the Globe staff contributed to this report.