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Boston Herald
Boston Herald
7 Jul 2023
Flint McColgan


NextImg:Weymouth double murder trial: Jurors have not reached verdict in Emanuel Lopes case after week of deliberations

Jurors have now deliberated for a week in the trial of Emanuel Lopes, charged with murdering a Weymouth Police officer and a 77-year-old bystander in 2018, and have yet to reach a verdict.

Closing arguments in the case were heard June 28 in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham and the jury began deliberating that day. With no deliberations over the weekend and the holiday, jurors have now had the case for a total of seven days. They were released at around 3 p.m. and instructed to continue deliberations on Monday.

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, nearly five years ago. The defendant has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges in Norfolk Superior Court, including two counts of murder.

The defense mounted a lack of criminal responsibility argument for Lopes, with defense attorney Larry Tipton arguing that his client has a long history of severe mental illness. In opening arguments, Tipton said that Lopes often “ranted” about Martians, government conspiracies and the Illuminati and exhibited “symptoms of voices and shadows, people that weren’t there. Paranoia.”

As Judge Beverely J. Cannone instructed jurors on the first day of trial, “criminal responsibility” is similar to an insanity defense. 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.

In contrast, prosecutor Greg Connor said that Lopes was wholly responsible for his actions that night.

Those actions, as Connor described them, were that instead of dropping a large rock in his hand as instructed by Sgt. Chesna when the officer responded to the scene, Lopes instead flung it at Chesna’s head, grabbed Chesna’s gun and shot multiple times into Chesna’s head and chest, also shooting Adams as she sat on her porch nearby.

Obituary photo of Weymouth murder victim Vera Adams. Photo courtesy Family of Vera Adams via C.C. Shepherd Funeral Home

Courtesy / C.C. Shepherd Funeral Home
Obituary photo of Weymouth murder victim Vera Adams. Photo courtesy Family of Vera Adams via C.C. Shepherd Funeral Home

This Dec. 10, 2012 photo shows Weymouth Police Officer Michael C. Chesna in Weymouth, Mass. Chesna died Sunday, July 15, 2018, from wounds sustained when a suspect allegedly took the officer's gun and fired following a vehicle crash and a foot chase. (Gary Higgins/The Quincy Patriot Ledger via AP)

Gary Higgins/Patriot Ledger via AP
This Dec. 10, 2012 photo shows Weymouth Police Officer Michael C. Chesna in Weymouth, Mass. Chesna died Sunday, July 15, 2018, from wounds sustained when a suspect allegedly took the officer’s gun and fired following a vehicle crash and a foot chase. (Gary Higgins/The Quincy Patriot Ledger via AP)