BostonGeorge
Member
Boston Globe Article
DA Alleges defendant has X-Ray Vision
Shot through floor kills woman downstairs
Man faces murder charge
By John Ellement and Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | June 28, 2005
LYNN -- It was the powdery white dust that gave it away, police said. Called to Jean Lally's apartment Sunday morning, when she could not wake her daughter, police noticed it on her daughter's chest.
They wondered if the dust had come from the ceiling, and sure enough, when they looked up, there it was, a hole in the plaster above them.
In what prosecutors are calling a bizarre murder, Kathryn R. Lally, 38, was shot dead while watching television on her mother's couch.
The bullet, they say, came through the floor of the apartment upstairs, where a person at what police called a marijuana-fueled party had discovered a Ruger semiautomatic pistol and fired it once into the floor.
''It's bizarre, but that's what happened," said Steve O'Connell, a spokesman for Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett.
Jason Welch, 23, of Lynn, was arraigned yesterday on charges of first-degree murder, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building, and unlawful possession of a firearm. He pleaded not guilty. Eight other people who had been at the party faced charges, including drug and gun possession.
Judge Joseph I. Dever ordered Welch held on $50,000 bail.
According to police and Welch's attorney, Raymond D. Buso, Welch had gone to the third-floor apartment to party with friends in the 30-unit building on Green Street, across the street from the Lynn Museum. The gun was already there, under a couch, while people were sitting around smoking marijuana, Buso said. At some point, Welch saw the weapon and decided to try to make sure the gun did not accidentally discharge, Buso said.
Welch had no formal training in handling handguns and instead relied on what he had seen in movies, Buso said. He removed the ammunition clip and did what is known as ''racking the slide," a process that normally ejects any bullets inside a gun's firing chamber.
Welch did not see any bullets pop out of the gun, prompting him to conclude that the handgun was empty, Buso said. He then pointed it at the floor and fired once.
According to a police report, Welch told investigators that despite the loud blast, he spent long minutes scouring the floor and couldn't find a bullet or a bullet hole so he thought the gun hadn't gone off.
''He didn't even know he killed anybody," Buso said. ''He was trying to make it safer."
Welch initially denied, when police interviewed him Sunday at the police station, that he had been at the party or that he had fired the gun. But he later admitted both, they said. He was arrested at the station.
A devastated Jean Lally told friends yesterday how she discovered her daughter was dead. Thinking she had fallen asleep while watching movies, Lally tried to wake Kathryn at 8 Sunday morning, but she wouldn't budge.
The mother prodded her once or twice and was not initially alarmed when Kathryn did not respond, because she was sometimes slow to wake up. Then she looked at her daughter's face.
''She looked white," a friend of Kathryn's, Laura K. Rixe, recalled Jean Lally saying.
Her mother dialed 911 at about 8 a.m. Medics quickly discovered the bullet wound, and police noticed the powdery debris. Upstairs they found eight people, the handgun, marijuana, and a shell casing.
The unusual shooting shook friends and neighbors. ''At your mother's house? You should feel safe there," said Penny Seery, 36, a friend of the Lallys. ''It's scary."
They described Kathryn as an outgoing, caring woman, one of seven children. The mother of a 17-year-old son, Lally had worked and volunteered at two local social service agencies in the past, her relatives said.
''She wasn't just my sister; we were best friends," said Colleen Lally, 49, also of Lynn, as she fought back tears. She said people would often mistake her for her sister, because they often chose the same clothes and hairstyles.
''She didn't deserve any of this," she added. ''She was a good person who just tried to help people."
While there was broad agreement between prosecutors and Welch's defense attorney yesterday about the basic facts of the shooting, there was intense disagreement on whether Welch should have been charged with first-degree murder, which is used for premeditated crimes.
''We just think this is the appropriate charge at this time," said O'Connell, adding that further investigation is needed.
Buso called it ''the most egregious example of overcharging" he had seen in 25 years.
Colleen Lally, who was not in court yesterday, learned of the charge from a reporter. ''Thank you, Lord," was all she said.
Globe correspondent Adam Jadhav and Jeremiah L. Manion of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Donovan Slack can be reached at [email protected].
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.
Do you think this is being charged appropriatly?
DA Alleges defendant has X-Ray Vision
Shot through floor kills woman downstairs
Man faces murder charge
By John Ellement and Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | June 28, 2005
LYNN -- It was the powdery white dust that gave it away, police said. Called to Jean Lally's apartment Sunday morning, when she could not wake her daughter, police noticed it on her daughter's chest.
They wondered if the dust had come from the ceiling, and sure enough, when they looked up, there it was, a hole in the plaster above them.
In what prosecutors are calling a bizarre murder, Kathryn R. Lally, 38, was shot dead while watching television on her mother's couch.
The bullet, they say, came through the floor of the apartment upstairs, where a person at what police called a marijuana-fueled party had discovered a Ruger semiautomatic pistol and fired it once into the floor.
''It's bizarre, but that's what happened," said Steve O'Connell, a spokesman for Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett.
Jason Welch, 23, of Lynn, was arraigned yesterday on charges of first-degree murder, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building, and unlawful possession of a firearm. He pleaded not guilty. Eight other people who had been at the party faced charges, including drug and gun possession.
Judge Joseph I. Dever ordered Welch held on $50,000 bail.
According to police and Welch's attorney, Raymond D. Buso, Welch had gone to the third-floor apartment to party with friends in the 30-unit building on Green Street, across the street from the Lynn Museum. The gun was already there, under a couch, while people were sitting around smoking marijuana, Buso said. At some point, Welch saw the weapon and decided to try to make sure the gun did not accidentally discharge, Buso said.
Welch had no formal training in handling handguns and instead relied on what he had seen in movies, Buso said. He removed the ammunition clip and did what is known as ''racking the slide," a process that normally ejects any bullets inside a gun's firing chamber.
Welch did not see any bullets pop out of the gun, prompting him to conclude that the handgun was empty, Buso said. He then pointed it at the floor and fired once.
According to a police report, Welch told investigators that despite the loud blast, he spent long minutes scouring the floor and couldn't find a bullet or a bullet hole so he thought the gun hadn't gone off.
''He didn't even know he killed anybody," Buso said. ''He was trying to make it safer."
Welch initially denied, when police interviewed him Sunday at the police station, that he had been at the party or that he had fired the gun. But he later admitted both, they said. He was arrested at the station.
A devastated Jean Lally told friends yesterday how she discovered her daughter was dead. Thinking she had fallen asleep while watching movies, Lally tried to wake Kathryn at 8 Sunday morning, but she wouldn't budge.
The mother prodded her once or twice and was not initially alarmed when Kathryn did not respond, because she was sometimes slow to wake up. Then she looked at her daughter's face.
''She looked white," a friend of Kathryn's, Laura K. Rixe, recalled Jean Lally saying.
Her mother dialed 911 at about 8 a.m. Medics quickly discovered the bullet wound, and police noticed the powdery debris. Upstairs they found eight people, the handgun, marijuana, and a shell casing.
The unusual shooting shook friends and neighbors. ''At your mother's house? You should feel safe there," said Penny Seery, 36, a friend of the Lallys. ''It's scary."
They described Kathryn as an outgoing, caring woman, one of seven children. The mother of a 17-year-old son, Lally had worked and volunteered at two local social service agencies in the past, her relatives said.
''She wasn't just my sister; we were best friends," said Colleen Lally, 49, also of Lynn, as she fought back tears. She said people would often mistake her for her sister, because they often chose the same clothes and hairstyles.
''She didn't deserve any of this," she added. ''She was a good person who just tried to help people."
While there was broad agreement between prosecutors and Welch's defense attorney yesterday about the basic facts of the shooting, there was intense disagreement on whether Welch should have been charged with first-degree murder, which is used for premeditated crimes.
''We just think this is the appropriate charge at this time," said O'Connell, adding that further investigation is needed.
Buso called it ''the most egregious example of overcharging" he had seen in 25 years.
Colleen Lally, who was not in court yesterday, learned of the charge from a reporter. ''Thank you, Lord," was all she said.
Globe correspondent Adam Jadhav and Jeremiah L. Manion of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Donovan Slack can be reached at [email protected].
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.
Do you think this is being charged appropriatly?
