Two brutal alleged murders head to trial in Boston

Jury selection has begun in two murder trials at Suffolk Superior Court, one for gunning down a man as he celebrated Father’s Day in a Roxbury park and another for the brutal stabbing of an 18-year-old woman to death in an East Boston parking garage.

Parking Garage massacre

On June 15, 2016, construction workers walked to their worksite at a parking garage at 54 Princeton St. in East Boston and came across a horrible sight: a young woman, her face “covered in blood,” lying on top of pieces of wood with one arm over her face, according to Herald reporting at the time.

Police would identify the dead woman as Blanca Lainez, 18, who would have turned 19 just two weeks later. An examination of her body and the scene would conclude she had been stabbed 15 times and beaten with a propane tank, according to the Suffolk DA’s office.

Prosecutors say her murder occurred between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. the night before, based on security camera footage of Lainez and the suspects.

The body was found just beyond a partially constructed wall near 54 Marion St. that the perpetrators would have to have gone through to get to the area Lainez’s body was found, according to the Commonwealth’s Statement of the Case.

Prosecutors said prints were found on a 2×4 in that wall that match their suspects: Jose Hernandez, who was only 16 at the time, and Angel Ramos-Oliva, who was 21 then. The Hernandez print had “presumptive positive” human blood stains and the Ramos-Oliva prints were found near a pool of blood that investigators linked by DNA to the victim, according to the Statement of the Case.

Hernandez is the one who will shortly be on trial. Ramos-Olivia’s trial is scheduled for Sept. 11

Bloody Father’s Day

On Father’s Day, June 20, 2021, 33-year-old Stacy Coleman was having a cookout with his family, including his mother, his three children and their mother in Winthrop Playground on Danube Street.

Set up for their own cookout right next to the Coleman group was a party that included Ira Grayson.

At the time of the alleged incident, Grayson, then 35, was on federal supervised release following a conviction in New Hampshire for being a felon in possession of a firearm, the Herald reported.

Prosecutors said the men had not known each other before they met that night and began a verbal argument that, according to the state’s Statement of the Case, got fierce enough that the men had to be separated by Coleman’s mother.

Prosecutors say Grayson then left the area but would return a short time later, at around 8:25 p.m..  When returned, he crossed onto Danube Street from Dewey Street, pulled a gun out of a fanny pack slung across his chest and started shooting into the park in Coleman’s direction, according to prosecutors.

In all, the men would exchange 17 rounds as the families fled the scene, the statement alleges. Coleman would receive a fatal shot and Grayson was shot on his right side between the ribcage and the hip, a non-lethal injury.

Police responded to a ShotSpotter activation for shooting in the area where they found Coleman suffering from the wound. Grayson had fled the scene.

Coleman was rushed to Boston Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 9:08 p.m. As doctors were attending to Coleman, Grayson entered the hospital to be treated for his own injuries and allegedly told E.R. doctors that he had been shot down on Dewey Street.