The Massachusetts Parole Board denied the release of two Plymouth County convicted murderers — one a former corrections officer and the other a paranoid would-be vampire. Both set their victims on fire.
Darren Caswell, 60, was a corrections officer for the state when, prosecutors say, he stabbed Matthew Cote, 26, of Kingston, through the heart with a screwdriver and set him on fire. Cote’s charred remains were found in his pickup truck in Carver on Aug. 17, 2003. Prosecutors say Caswell killed Cote over a drug debt to his paraplegic cousin.
After a long investigation, Caswell was tried and convicted of second-degree murder in 2011. Caswell was sentenced to life in prison. He appeared for his first parole hearing in August. The board noted that Cawell “… appeared to minimize his involvement in the offense” and his career as a corrections officer held him to a higher standard. He’s next eligible for a parole hearing in 2026.
Next was a return visitor to the board: James Riva II, 67. He was convicted of murdering Carmen Lopez — his own grandmother — then drinking her blood and setting her on fire in her Marshfield home on April 10, 1980.
A Plymouth Superior Court jury convicted Riva of second-degree murder and arson the next year.
“I can only describe his actions as brutal, senseless and inhumane. Our streets and communities are safer today with Riva remaining in prison,” Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz wrote in a statement following the board’s decision to deny Riva parole.
Marshfield Police and fire responded to the home for a report of a house fire. After battling the blaze, firefighters found Lopez’ body, riddled with bullets, on a bedroom floor. Marshfield Police contacted State Police and a homicide investigation began.
Investigators determined that the then-22-year-old Riva borrowed a car and drove to Lopez’s house, where she asked him to do a load of laundry. In the basement, Riva brought out a gold-painted gun and bullets — painted that way, he told investigators, to protect him from vampires — and walked back upstairs and shot his grandmother.
He then, according to the Plymouth DA’s office, dragged her body into a bedroom and drank blood from her wounds. He then poured gas on her body and lit her on fire.
“The Board remains concerned that, within the last five years, he (Riva) became symptomatic with extreme paranoia similar to his delusions that occurred prior to the homicide. The Board also verbalized concerns that he may continue to harbor animosity toward those who (he believes) have wronged him,” the board wrote in their decision.
Riva is next up for parole in October 2027.
