Accused killer sent home to shelter-in-place during pandemic

A Boston man accused of second-degree murder in a stabbing death in Dorchester two years ago has been sent home instead to wait out the coronavirus pandemic over the objections of Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins.

Judge Christine Roach ordered the release of William Jason Utley, 40, on Tuesday in a move the man’s attorney said was the compassionate thing to do.

“He’s under house arrest at his mother’s place in Boston,” Utley’s attorney, Michael Tumposky, told the Herald Wednesday, adding his client has leukemia.

But Rollins, through her office, said springing Utley was not the right move.

“Judge Roach released this individual over the Commonwealth’s objection. We believed that the defendant’s medical issues did not outweigh the public safety concerns we had regarding his release. Judge Roach disagreed and now he is out with a GPS monitor,” said Matthew Brelis, spokesman for the DA.

Utley was slated to go on trial next week for allegedly killing Anthony Young, 33, in Uphams Corner on March 25, 2018. Police found Young mortally wounded on Cushing Avenue shortly after 3 a.m.

Utley’s release comes as the state’s Supreme Judicial Court has taken under advisement a call to spring inmates as coronavirus cases pop up in jails.

Tumposky said other lawyers are looking to the SJC to “take a hard look at who needs to be incarcerated.”  He called the decision “critical” to help stop the spread of coronavirus in the state that is expected to hit a peak in the coming week or two.

But sheriffs and others are urging the SJC to weigh heavily who should be let go or not. Although at least 17 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the Department of Correction, attorney Robert Harnais spoke for the state’s 14 sheriffs Tuesday defending their facilities’ measures.

Inmates have access to counseling services, opioid addiction treatment and shelter that they wouldn’t have outside prison walls, Harnais said.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2xITxE4