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Retired correction officer charged in 2003 Middleborough murder

E-mail|Link|Comments () October 5, 2009 03:45 PM

By Globe Staff

A 44-year-old Middleborough man pleaded not guilty today to first-degree murder charges in a Brockton courtroom for allegedly stabbing a man to death with a screwdriver and then setting the victim’s remains on fire in his own pickup truck in 2003.

Darren S. Caswell was arrested last Friday after a Plymouth County grand jury handed up an indictment charging him with killing Matthew S. Cote in a dispute over the illegal sale of prescription drugs.

The dispute involved a third man, identified by Plymouth prosecutors as Russell Freitas, a now-deceased quadriplegic who allegedly sold prescription painkillers to Cote but became angered when he suspected Cote has robbed him of some pills.

Caswell is a retired correction officer for the state Department of Correction who retired in January. At the time, he was assigned to Bridgewater State Hospital in Bridgewater, a DOC spokeswoman said. A Globe database of state payrolls showed that Caswell earned $80,000 in 20008.

Cote, 26, was last seen by his girlfriend on Aug. 13, 2003, in their Kingston home. She reported him missing on Aug. 14, 2003, and told investigators that Cote planned to buy 100 oxycontin pills from Freitas at what was then his Middleborough residence, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said in an interview after Caswell’s arraignment in Plymouth Superior Court in Brockton.

On Aug. 17, 2003, two men found Cote’s pickup truck with his burned corpse inside in Carver. An autopsy showed he had been killed before the fire was set, Cruz said. Cruz said that cellphone records reviewed by State Police and his office show that Caswell and Freitas were in frequent contact with each other on Aug. 13 just before Cote arrived at Freitas’s house.

Cruz also said that Caswell – who was Freitas’s cousin – was questioned about the killing by State Police in 2003. Caswell allegedly told them, “that’s not how it happened. I didn’t know at the time that the kid would be killed,’’ Cruz said, citing reports from the time.

Cruz said that Freitas had a handicapped equipped van, which he could not drive. Around 8 p.m. on Aug. 13, a friend got behind the wheel of Freitas’s van and drove around to Carver where Caswell, dressed all in black, allegedly jumped into the van before speeding off.

Cruz said Freitas was overheard telling someone in a cellphone conversation talking about cooking duck. "Just make sure it’s well done,'' Freitas is quoted as saying.

Caswell’s attorney, Kevin J. Reddington of Brockton, said he has represented the retired correction officer since August 2003, and that his client never made the statement to police that prosecutors now claim he did.

“Police have no recording, no contemporaneous notes, and it’s outlandish,’’ said Reddington.

Reddington said Caswell’s retirement from the DOC after 20 years had nothing to do with the murder investigation. He also said that he will appeal the judge’s order that Caswell be held without bail.

Reddington also said that Caswell has known since 2003 that police suspected he had a role in Cote’s death. And, this February, prosecutors warned Cote they were ready to indict if he did not talk with them, Reddington said.

At Reddington’s suggestion, Caswell refused to be interviewed by investigators.

“It’s just bizarre,’’ Reddington said. “They have no case.’’