Two charged in ’07 Dorchester killings
Special grand jury moved case along
Last Sunday, relatives baptized 2-year-old Jeriah Campbell and celebrated the life of the father she will never know, Jarrid Campbell, who was shot to death on a Dorchester street shortly before she was born.
Yesterday, Campbell’s family was digesting the news that authorities have charged two men in the slayings of Campbell and 41-year-old Jeffrey Jones, who were shot as they sat in a car on Shandon Road on July 12, 2007.
“We are still feeling the impact,’ Campbell’s father, the Rev. Emanuel Hutcherson, said yesterday, three days after Jeriah and her older brother, Josiah, were christened at Dorchester’s Greater Love Tabernacle Church, where Hutcherson is a minster. “We all got together as a family and had a christening.’’
With the help of a special grand jury, authorities said yesterday, they pierced a code of silence that had shielded the alleged gunmen for 24 months.
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office identified the two men accused of the killings as Stanley Earl Jenkins Jr., 26, of Roslindale and Donald Ray Williams, 24, of Dorchester.
Both were already in custody when they were indicted.
The shooting took place after a daylong, church-sponsored party at the Franklin Park development.
About 200 people attended, including some street gang members, prosecutors said.
Jenkins has been tied to gang activity in the nearby Franklin Hill development.
Authorities said Campbell had argued with another party-goer, and after he and Jones returned to their car near the intersection of Shandon Road and Fermoy Heights Avenue shortly after 11:15 p.m., Jenkins and Williams approached the car on foot and fired multiple rounds at the two men inside, killing both.
Despite the large number of people at the function, Boston police homicide detectives and Suffolk prosecutors struggled to get information about the killings, forcing them to turn to a special grand jury to investigate the slayings.
The special grand jury is an investigative tool authorities occasionally turn to in crimes that are tough to solve. A special grand jury can sit longer, subpoena witnesses and focus on one case, as opposed to the multiple cases a regular grand jury deals with.
“For anyone who thinks he can count on threats, intimidation, or a code of silence to help him beat a murder charge, we offer this as evidence to the contrary,’’ Conley said in a statement.
More than 40 people, some of whom were forced to appear by court order, testified before the closed-door grand jury, officials said.
Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said in the same statement that “I hope this arrest provides in some small measure a level of relief and comfort to their [the victims’] family and friends.’’
An arraignment date has not been set.
Jenkins is serving a federal gun and drug sentence, and Williams is being held on $1 million cash bail for two separate shooting incidents, prosecutors said.
Relatives of Jones, the second shooting victim, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Hutcherson, a former chaplain at the Suffolk County House of Correction, runs a retraining program for men with criminal records or who are trying to improve their lives.
Participants learn skills needed for construction work, which is what Campbell was working at when he was killed, Hutcherson said.
“My son had his run-ins with the law,’’ Hutcherson said. But at the time of his death “he started working construction, making a change in his own life, . . . and taking care of his family.’’
He said it is a mystery to the family why Campbell was killed.
Hutcherson said that he has gone to jail to tell prisoners about the death of a loved one and has knocked on dozens of doors in the middle of the night to deliver similar news and to provide comfort and faith when asked.
Yet, it was still a shock to lose a son and to have to be head of a family who has to comfort himself, his wife, his children and his grandchildren.
“All of a sudden, sadness hit my own doorstep,’’ he said. “That’s when you really experience the true essence of God, because it was the strength of the Lord that brought me through.’’
Hutcherson said the family will prepare to represent their slain member as the case against the accused killers moves through Suffolk Superior Court. But he said he will not celebrate the prosecution of the two men, whose names he did not recognize.
“Unfortunately, my son is not here,’’ he said. “And another two lives are being wasted.’’
Brian Ballou of the Globe staff contributed to this report. 
