Boyhood friend murdered Sean Dwyer two days after Dwyer gave him money, DA says

Dominic Shiner, 33, was ordered held without bail today at his arraignment on a charge he stabbed Sean Dwyer to death in front of Dwyer's barbershop on Adams Street in Dorchester last December. He was arrested Friday following his indictment by a Suffolk County grand jury.

As Dwyer's mother, other relatives, friends and Boston Police detectives listened, Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Julie Higgins said that just two days before the murder, Shiner had shown up at Dwyer's shop and asked him for some money, which she said Dwyer gave him.

Dwyer, who had grown up in South Boston with Shiner, agreed, she said, adding Dwyer then got "very bizarre" telephone calls from Shiner for the two days before Dwyer's life ended on the sidewalk in front of his shop.

Higgins said Shiner's cell-phone location data places him at the scene of the murder, as do statements he allegedly made to friend, surveillance images from the area and even postings to social media.

Higgins said Shiner, who wore a blue hoodie with the hood over his head and bearded face as he listened behind a door in the magistrate's session at Suffolk Superior Court, told some friends after the murder he'd done "a very bad thing" and then pointed them to TV-news reports on the murder.

She said Shiner, has a lengthy criminal record, including three convictions - two for larceny, one for possession of burglary tools and one for distribution of heroin - and that he had defaulted on a number of charges, most recently a charge of possession of a class B substance in Charlestown Municipal Court he decided not to answer to on Aug. 28.

Shiner's attorney, Michael Doolin, said his client will be found not guilty at trial. Grand juries have "a very, very low standard of proof" to issue an indictment, he said, declining further comment.

Dwyer's family members and friends were quickly ushered out of the courthouse before they could comment by a BPD detective.

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