Man held on bail, charged in threat
Witness in deadly shooting says he was intimidated
MEDFORD - As a Cambridge District Court judge ordered Edwin Alvarado held on bail yesterday on a charge he intimidated a witness in a fatal shooting, the Cambridge man spun in a half-circle and erupted in a tirade of obscenities.
In between the profanity, Alvarado shook his head and said, “this isn’t right.’’ His attorney, Raymond L. Parino, entered a plea of not guilty to charges of witness intimidation and assault and battery. Alvarado was then ordered held on $20,000 cash bail.
Wearing a white T-shirt and with his hands cuffed in front of his body, he was led away pending a July 30 pretrial hearing.
Authorities have not characterized Alvarado as a suspect in the fatal shooting Tuesday of Jason Ellcock, 33, of Malden, on Rindge Avenue in Cambridge.
Alvarado was arrested shortly after the shooting and charged with disorderly conduct. After he was released on personal recognizance on that charge Wednesday, he called the witness, asking to meet him outside a home on Rindge Avenue, prosecutors said.
Alvarado, 22, is known to the witness and had learned that the witness, identified only as John Doe, led police to interview Martinez Johnson about the fatal shooting, prosecutors said.
Johnson was also arrested shortly after the homicide on a default warrant, but has not been characterized as a suspect.
Assistant District Attorney Melinda Thompson said during yesterday’s arraignment that Alvarado slapped the witness twice and told him to stop talking to police.
The witness called authorities about 15 minutes after the alleged encounter, and three hours later police arrested Alvarado.
Thompson told Judge Roanne Sragow that Alvarado is “certainly a danger, not only to this witness, but also to the community.’’
Parino dismissed the charges as an attempt to get Alvarado to cooperate with investigators. Alvarado has an alibi, he said, for the time of the alleged assault on the witness.
“This has nothing to do with witness intimidation and battery,’’ Parino said. “This has everything to do with the investigation of the homicide.’’
Parino said his client was asked questions pertaining to the homicide after he was arrested and charged with witness intimidation. “He’s completely befuddled why he’s being questioned in relation to the homicide,’’ Parino said.
Police responded to reports of gunfire at about 3 a.m. Tuesday and found Ellcock’s body in the driveway of the Fresh Pond Apartments, one of the towering red brick buildings that dominate the skyline along Fresh Pond Parkway. No one has been charged with the fatal shooting, which followed a wave of violence in the neighborhood.
In a press release yesterday, Middlesex District Attorney Gerald T. Leone Jr. said, , “This defendant beat and threatened a witness to prevent him from cooperating with our ongoing homicide investigation. We will prosecute any person who interferes with this investigation by threatening witnesses or being untruthful in their statements to police.’’
Leigh Redman, who identified herself as Ellcock’s girlfriend of seven years, said yesterday that she does not know Alvarado or Johnson. She described her boyfriend as “the most gentle man you could ever meet’’ and said that he had no enemies. Ellcock worked for the Department of Public Works in Brighton and had a 13-year-old son, she said.
Redman, who has been offering support to Ellcock’s family over the past few days, said: “It’s sickening what happened. What can you say about something like this?’’ 