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Trial of alleged killer of Billerica brothers now underway

E-mail|Link|Comments () June 17, 2009 01:34 PM

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

LOWELL – Some seven years after two brothers from Billerica were fatally wounded in a Lowell parking lot, the trial of their alleged killer began today in Lowell Superior Court.

Rene Ramos

Rene Ramos, 29, is accused of shooting both Paul and Michael Donovan on Jan. 31, 2002, in what Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Thomas O’Reilly described as a drug deal gone bad.

O’Reilly told jurors that 20-year-old Paul Donovan was a cellphone salesman who met Ramos for the first time just one week before he died and that the two men had agreed to conduct a drug sale.

On the night of the shooting, Paul Donovan asked his younger brother to drive to the alleged meeting with Ramos for reasons that are not clear to this day, O’Reilly said. He described the 18-year-old Michael Donovan as a star high school athlete with a promising future.

"P.J. Donovan called his brother for a ride. We'll never know why," O'Reilly said. Paul Donovan died at the scene and Michael, dressed in his pajamas and slippers, was pronounced dead a few hours later at Lowell General Hospital, the prosecutor said.

O'Reilly said Rene Ramos and Paul Donovan each made a phone call about 10 minutes before the shooting. Both calls bounced off the same cellphone tower, he said.

O'Reilly showed jurors photographs taken at the crime scene, including one of Paul Donovan, his body slumped out the cars' shattered passenger window, and another of the exterior of the white SUV stained red with blood.

But Ramos’s defense attorney, Michael Doolin, denounced the prosecution’s evidence and flatly declared to the jury that prosecutors not only have a weak case, they are also trying the wrong man.

"There's one thing that's clear: There is no forensic evidence in this case," said Doolin. "And the reason is clear -- Rene Ramos did not commit this crime."

Both attorneys said the jurors will hear circumstantial forensic evidence and testimony from drug dealers and their associates. Ramos was arrested on Sept. 22, 2006, almost five years after the murders.

After opening statements, jurors boarded a bus and were being taken to view the parking lot where the brothers were shot.

The first witness called to testify was Officer Brian Kinney, who was one of the first officers from the Lowell police department to arrive at the scene. The most junior officer working that night, Kinney testified about being called to the crime scene for a report of a suspicious car. The bodies of the Donovan brothers were found inside the car, which was still idling. Kinney also testified he was assigned to keep a log of all people crossing into the crime scene. Doolin, the defense attorney, pressed Kinney for specific details from that night, such as the order officers arrived and their specific duties at the scene. Kinney remembered little, saying it was close to seven years ago.