Emanuel Lopes convicted of murder of Weymouth Police Sgt. Michael Chesna, bystander Vera Adams
A Massachusetts jury convicted Emanuel Lopes on all charges related to the murder of Weymouth Police Sgt. Michael Chesna and bystander Vera Adams in a July 2018 rampage.
It was the second time Lopes was tried on the charges. His first trial last summer was declared a mistrial on July 10 after jurors deliberated for weeks without a verdict. This time, jurors deliberated for roughly a week — beginning on Thursday, Feb. 8 — before convicting Lopes on 11 offenses connected to the incident that took place in the early hours of July 15, 2018.
Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone had earlier on Friday denied a defense motion to declare another mistrial in the case. The jurors were brought up from Bristol County this time because, Cannone had said in a final hearing before the trial in December, that it’s far enough south that many in the jury pool would be more likely to get their news from Providence, R.I., than from Boston, leading to a more neutral pool.
Family and friends of Chesna, 42, and Adams, 77, erupted into cheers at the reading of the two top-level offenses. Jurors convicted Lopes with the first-degree murder of Chesna and the second-degree murder of Adams.
Lopes was also convicted on two counts of assault to kill two other police officers at the scene of the incident, assault with a dangerous weapon (a rock) on Chesna, carrying a firearm without a license, larceny of a firearm, leaving the scene of an accident causing property damage, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, use of a motor vehicle without authorization, and malicious destruction of property of a value less than $1,200.
Lopes faces possible life in prison.
As prosecutors described it, Lopes was getting along with friends that summer night and the group decided to go to a RedBox to rent a movie when Lopes received a call from a man who had previously been involved with Lopes’ girlfriend. This call set Lopes off.
As the night turned into early morning, Lopes took his girlfriend’s white BMW and crashed it into another vehicle by South Shore Hospital — a Dodge, which brought the charge of leaving the scene of an accident causing property damage — and fled the scene.
Soon, Weymouth Police would receive 911 calls about Lopes erratic driving and that he was later throwing rocks in a residential neighborhood.
When Chesna located Lopes, he saw the man with a large rock in his hands and ordered him to drop it. Instead, Lopes threw the rock at Chesna’s head, walked over to the downed officer and grabbed his service pistol and shot him five times in the head and chest.
Another officer shot at Lopes through the police cruiser window, striking Lopes in the leg. Police would soon apprehend him and only then realize that 77-year-old bystander Vera Adams had been shot and killed in the mayhem as she sat on her nearby porch.
Attorney Larry Tipton mounted a lack of criminal responsibility defense for Lopes. Tipton argued that his client has a long history of severe mental illness.
Emanuel Lopes two murder victims: Weymouth Police Sgt. Michael Chesna and town resident Vera Adams. (Collage, Chesa photo Gary Higgins/The Quincy Patriot Ledger via AP, Adams photo courtesy Shepherd Funeral Home)