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Sentence swift after slow murder conviction for Dorchester killing

E-mail|Link June 19, 2009 12:58 PM

By Brian R. Ballou and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

It took four trials, two deadlocked juries, and one ill judge before William Wood and Quincy Butler were ultimately convicted of the brutal torture and murder of a woman in her Dorchester apartment in 2004.

Betsy Tripp

The sentence for the crime, however, was unequivocal and came swiftly. Wood, 35, will never set foot outside prison again after receiving a mandatory life sentence today without the possibility of parole. Judge Patrick Brady went a step further, however, giving Wood another 18 to 20 years for armed carjacking after he completes his life term for first-degree murder.

Butler, 35, received a series of consecutive sentences for convictions including second-degree murder that will keep him in prison for a minimum of 52 years before he is eligible for parole.

A Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted the pair of "career criminals" for what the prosecution described as a "drug-crazed quest for crack cocaine." The night of Feb. 13, 2004, they hogtied Betsy Tripp, 59, in her apartment and fatally slashing her throat and shooting her boyfriend in the face, leaving him partially blind.

Butler and Wood had repeatedly escaped conviction on the same charges since 2008 because of three mistrials, twice because of deadlocked juries and once because the judge was ill. The fourth and final jury convicted Butler of nine crimes and Wood of six crimes.

The boyfriend, Morris Thompson, gave a brief victim impact statement before the sentencing, wearing a black patch over the left eye he lost when Butler shot him twice in the face.

"She didn't deserve to die that way," Thompson said. "I miss her, and I hope they burn in hell."

The victim's father, George Tripp, spoke in his victim impact statement about the exhausting, five-year wait for justice that he feared might not occur in his lifetime.

"It leaves us with a very empty feeling," George Tripp said. "Nothing can bring back our Betsy. There are no winners here. We are all losers from this terrible act that took our Betsy's life."