The trial has begun for one of the four men charged with recklessly shooting during the J’Ouvert Parade of the Caribbean Festival in 2023, injuring eight people.
Hubman Hunter, 32, of Lynn, on Friday morning appeared before a Suffolk Superior Court jury that will decide his fate on eight charges of assault and battery with a firearm, and multiple other firearm and ammunition charges.
“In August of 2023, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the city like they do every year to celebrate the Caribbean festival,” prosecutor Caitlin Fitzgerald began her opening statement. “But while everyone else was there to celebrate Caribbean culture, a very small group of individuals turned that celebration into a nightmare.”
Hunter was indicted in January 2024 along with Gerald Vick, 31, of Dorchester; Dwayne Francis, 31, of Dorchester; and Sebastian Monteiro, 22, of Boston; related to the violence that unfolded in Dorchester the morning of August, 26, 2023.
Monteiro last October pleaded guilty to his part in the violence. Judge Mark Hallal sentenced Monteiro to four years in state prison, to be followed by a year of probation, on the charges of assault with a dangerous weapon, carrying a firearm without a license, and carrying a loaded firearm without a license.
Vick failed to appear for his trial and is missing, which landed him on the BPD’s most wanted fugitives list. The case against Francis is pending.
“Ultimately it was a chaotic situation, a lot of running, a lot of radio transmissions, shots fired,” Massachusetts State Police Trooper Awan Freeman, who was a Boston Police officer at the time, testified to what he saw on the streets that morning.
He was the fourth witness of the day following three Boston EMS EMTs who tended to the wounded and took some of them to Boston Medical Center.
The jury watched Freeman’s body-worn camera footage as the former Army soldier with basic lifesaving training administered tourniquets to most of the wounded revelers. Boston EMS and other police officers were already on the scene and they can be seen tending to people bleeding from bullet wounds.
Fitzgerald said that Monteiro and “seven innocent victims” — all of whom were named in her opening — were all “caught in the chaos caused by three people who decided to get into a gun fight.”
She told the jury that her case would rest on a number of videos, including the body-worn footage, and especially video from the Boys and Girls Club, which is roughly the location the parade was passing by as the shots rang out at the intersection of Talbot and Blue Hill avenues. She told the jury that at first, all they would see is chaos, but on further rewatches, they will see the action unfold and will see those responsible.
“Now, you cannot make out the basis of any of these individuals from this video. It’s not that clear,” she said, but then said that the clothing will be clear and further video from the day will clearly show the faces of the men who wore that clothing. And among them, she said, is Hunter.
“Every case is different,” Fitzgerald said. “Some cases have a lot of scientific evidence. This one has a lot of video.”
One of those wounded seen in Freeman’s video was Monteiro, according to cross-examination by Hunter’s defense attorney, Carlos Apostle. Monteiro heavily factors into Apostle’s defense strategy, which hinged on a lack of positive identification of his client, self-defense, and Monteiro’s ultimate culpability as the “aggressor” and “first shooter.”
In Apostle’s opening statement, he said that Monteiro had been antagonizing a group of rivals over by the Lee School, a couple blocks away from the Boys and Girls Club, some 30 minutes before the shooting occurred
“Sebastian Monteiro should never have been a rover, allowed to wander, essentially antagonize this group and come over and not only clutch (a gun), but — pray, the court’s indulgence — extend and fire,” Apostle said.
Apostle’s opening was dynamic, with his voice rising as he described how “cameras only put black and Latino neighborhoods in the city of Boston to watch and to spy on constituents.” He also said hooded sweatshirts, like the one prosecutor Fitzgerald says identifies Hunter as a shooter, are “communal” like cars, and shared among friends and that just because a hoodie is worn by someone earlier in the day, that does not necessarily mean the same person is wearing it later.
His dynamic presentation also earned four objections and four related trips to sidebar discussions with Judge Anthony Campo. Most, if not all, were sustained, so Apostle dropped certain subjects introduced in his opening. Apostle also made two oral motions for a mistrial, both of which Campo overruled.
The trial is scheduled to continue Monday at 9 a.m.
