


Following weeks of jury deliberations, a Norfolk Superior Court judge declared a mistrial Monday morning for the case of a young Weymouth man accused of killing a police officer and bystander nearly 5 years ago.
“Jurors, I’m in receipt of your note. Your services are complete. I’m declaring a mistrial,” Judge Beverly Cannone in courtroom video Monday morning, to audible gasps and the apparent sound of crying from the courtroom.
Emanuel Lopes, 25, is accused of shooting Weymouth Police Sgt. Michael Chesna, 42, and bystander Vera Adams, 77, in the early hours of July 15, 2018. The defendant has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges in Norfolk Superior Court, including two counts of murder.
Jury deliberations began on June 28 after closing arguments and restarted again when one juror was replaced on July 5.
During the trial lawyers and witnesses laid out the day of the crimes in vivid detail. During July 14 and 15, witnesses testified, Lopes mood and actions took an abrupt turn from a normal night with his friends to becoming upset over a phone call, crashing his girlfriend’s car alone and attacking and shooting the officer who found him with his own gun while a neighbor watched.
More officers subdued and arrested Lopes and shortly after found the body of Vera Adams shot on her porch.
Lopes’s defense attorney made the case his client was not guilty by “lack of criminal responsibility,” citing his long history of severe mental illness.
Under Massachusetts law, a defendant is not criminally responsible if they have a mental disease or defect and as a result are unable to understand or conform to the law and are sent for treatment until they are deemed no longer mentally ill and a threat by a judge.
Lopes will be tried again with a new jury.