Why Wasn’t Southie Murder Suspect Deported? Court Documents Offer Answer

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2017/05/09/why-wasnt-southie-murder-suspect-deported-court-documents-offer-answer/

Bampumim Teixeira was arraigned Monday from his hospital bed in connection with the murders of two South Boston doctors. (AP photo) Bampumim Teixeira was arraigned Monday from his hospital bed in connection with the murders of two South Boston doctors. (AP photo)

BOSTON — Court documents confirm reports that a Boston Municipal Court judge crossed out the original 365-day sentence first issued to a convicted bank robber and West African immigrant now charged with the murders of two South Boston doctors, preventing his automatic deportation.

Records show that Bampumim Teixeira, 30, charged with last Friday’s murders of doctors Lina Bolanos, 38, and Richard Field, 49, pleaded guilty last fall to a series of bank robberies. Teixeira, who was living in Chelsea and had worked as a security guard at the luxury condominium complex where Bolanos and Field lived, entered the United States legally by first moving from his native Guinea-Bissau to Cape Verde, later obtaining a Green Card because his aunt was living in Massachusetts. Green Card status, however, can be revoked as result of certain forms of criminal activity.

According to federal laws, criminal aliens are subject to deportation “on the basis of an offense for which the alien has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of at least 1 year.”

Court documents reviewed by New Boston Post show that Boston Municipal Court Judge Lisa Grant crossed out the number “365,” denoting the amount of days Teixeira was originally assigned to serve, and instead inserted the number “364,” meaning his sentence would not equate to a full year and he would no longer be subject to deportation.

The documents, obtained by investigative reporter Michele McPhee and discussed with a New Boston Post reporter during her afternoon radio show Tuesday on WMEX-1510 on Tuesday, confirm the original report first filed by the Worcester-based blog Turtleboy Sports.

The court documents also featured a stamp in bold letters: “Alien Warning Given.”

Teixeira is accused of slitting the throats of Bolanos and Fields last Friday night after he entered the soon-to-be-wedded couple’s $1.9 million penthouse. Police are still investigating a motive. Teixeira was arraigned from his hospital bed on Monday after police arrested him at the scene of the murders.

Media reports indicate Teixeira was unarmed when he robbed a bank in Boston last summer. He later admitted to an early 2014 bank robbery.

Court documents state, however, that Teixeira threatened to shoot and kill bank employees when he robbed the Citizens Bank at 40 Summer Street in Boston in the late-morning hours of June 30, 2016. According to police, Teixeira showed up at the bank just after 11 a.m. and passed a note to the teller that apparently read, “$5,000 or I’ll Shoot you and everybody here now.”

The teller immediately handed over a little more than $200 along with a dye pack, the report indicated. Police later reviewed video surveillance showing a man matching Teixeira’s description entering a nearby MBTA station. Police managed to determine that Teixeira used a credit card to add value to his Charlie Card, which he then swiped to board the T on his way home to Chelsea.

Police arrested Teixeira several weeks later at his place of employment — the same luxury building where he would allegedly take the lives of Bolanos and Fields less than a year later.

The police report notes that co-workers told investigators Teixeira went by the name “J.J.”.

A State House News profile of Grant notes that former governor Deval Patrick nominated her for a judgeship in 2014. The profile states that Grant, 47 at the time of her appointment, had been a career defense attorney.

Grant told the Massachusetts Governor’s Council, tasked with confirming a sitting governor’s judicial appointments, that she dislikes a “cookie-cutter approach” to prison sentencing.

“I believe people should be treated fairly, but you should consider their individual case,” Grant told the council at the time.

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