Universal Hub on Dorchester

A man upset over the alleged bum engine a mechanic put in his wife's car admitted today he helped a friend gun the mechanic down in the Dorchester District Court parking lot, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Mario Burns, 39, pleaded guilty to manslaughter a day after his trial for Charles Contave's murder on March 29, 2010. Suffolk Superior Court Judge Christine McEvoy sentenced him to 15 years in prison for his change of plea. Cornelius Evans pleaded guilty in November to pulling the trigger.

Prosecutors say Burns, his wife and Contave had just left a small-claims hearing at Dorchester District Court, when Evans arrived, Burns pointed out Contave and Evans shot him to death in the court parking lot, a couple blocks away from the court.

Authorities today charged Jean Weevens Janvier, 30, of Dorchester, for the murder of Stephanie and Judith Emile on Harlem Street last Nov. 14.

Boston Police and the Suffolk County District Attorney's office are seeking the public's help to find Janvier.

If you know where he is, contact the homicide unit at 617-343-4470 or the anonymous tip line by calling 800-494-TIPS or texting TIP to CRIME (27463).

Innocent, etc.

Remains of a room at 101 Maxwell St. Photo by BFD.

A bedroom short circuit caused a two-alarm fire this morning at 101 Maxwell St., the Boston Fire Department reports.

No residents were injured, but one firefighter was taken to Carney Hospital with a head injury, the department says. Damage was estimated at $200,000.

2/4/12 - 9:40 am

Hasn't the poor guy suffered enough indignities in his life in Franklin Park? The Globe reports the gorilla was unable to pick between the Patriots and Giants so the zoo had to swap in some substitute gorilla for the dumb stunt.

12/25/11 - 4:00 am

Boston Police report arresting a Randolph man on charges he shot somebody on Christmas morning, three months after he was arrested on charges he tried to shoot somebody else.

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1/25/12 - 3:31 pm

Boston Police report arresting a Greenwood Street resident who'd allegedly finally snapped at all the parents who stop in front of his driveway to pick up kids at the school across the street.

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25-27 Gallivan Blvd. Photo by BFD.

A fire reported around 1 p.m. at 25-27 Gallivan Blvd. quickly went to two alarms. The cause of the fire, which appears to have started in a second-floor bedroom, is now under investigation.

The Boston Fire Department reports one resident was taken to a local hospital with smoke inhalation. A total of six residents were displaced by the fire, which did an estimated $300,000 in damage, the department reports.

1/21/12 - 1:00 pm

The Awl interviews Kerry Burke, who covers the "murder and mayhem" beat for the New York Daily News - and who grew up in a Dorchester housing project, which he brings up to explain why he feels his work is important:

If these stories aren't told, then these people don't count and these places don't exist. They don't. I'm from the old neighborhood, as it were, of Dorchester in the Boston area, and I know a little bit about being outside of society. Frankly, the awful things that happened in our neighborhood were the things that really impacted our lives. ... I remember growing up and occasionally some horrific shit would go down in my neighborhood. And it would be ignored by the media. It told us we didn't count. It made plain that we were outside society. These stories count, just like the people who live in these neighborhoods.

1/18/12 - 11:55 pm

Boston Police report arresting Melvin Wright, 28, on charges he sent another man to Boston Medical Center with multiple life-threatening stab wounds shortly before midnight last night.

Wright, police say, stabbed another man repeatedly during a "verbal altercation" at 107 Devon St.

He was charged with assault with intent to murder and assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon.

Innocent, etc.

Ed. note: The amount of Graham's bounced license check was $2,219, not $134. The amount has been updated in the post; apologies for anybody misled by the incorrect figure.

Christopher Graham says he found himself in pretty dire straits the weekend of Jan. 7. The day before, a police detective had seized the food-serving license of his Lorenez Island Kuisine because the check he used to pay for its renewal had bounced. And as the detective, Robert Mulvey warned him, without the license, he had to shut immediately.

With no money to pay for the license, Graham told the Boston Licensing Board today, he panicked and held an illegal after-hours party that began early on Jan. 8 and ended when police, responding to the latest noise complaint about the 657 Washington St. restaurant, arrived around 2:55 a.m. and shut him down.

Graham raised enough money to pay for his license - more than $2,000 - but the move may well backfire on him: The licensing board votes Thursday whether to strip him of his license altogether or suspend it for a period of time. This is at least the second time Graham has bounced a check to the board.

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Dave Ahern looked out the window of his Dorchester home to see what a thin coating of snow means. He used the hashtag #yougottabekiddin

Crash at Everett and Clevemont in Brighton. Photo by bbarbaruolo.

Update, 11 p.m.: Expressway in Dorchester at a complete standstill in both directions; six cars collided on the Zakim.

Drivers unaccustomed to powder-covered roads, coupled with a lack of salt, means spinouts and crashes are beginning to pile up. A Hummer ran up into a house on Lake Street in Brighton, but did no major damage to either house or people. Police shut Everett Street in Brighton after cars started playing pinball. Boston DPW salt trucks began blasting out of their yards to treat roads around 10:45 p.m.

Ed. note: I held off on raising the French Toast Alert based on a forecast that called for everything to melt by morning as temperatures rose into the 40s. I should have known better.

State and Boston Police say a guy driving a stolen car from Medford sped away from a state trooper today, eventually causing a a four-way crash on I-93 and then fleeing on foot into Dorchester's Port Norfolk section, where police found him hiding under another vehicle.

According to State Police, a trooper noticed a stolen Dodge Caravan on Adams Street and began "a slow speed chase" around noon today. The driver refused to stop, then sped up and raced onto Morrissey Boulevard going the wrong way:

At that point we terminated the pursuit but continued attempting to monitor the vehicle's path of travel. Reports indicated that the suspect vehicle continued from Morrissey to the rotary and then onto Route 93 going southbound in the northbound lane. The wrong way operator is believed to have caused a four-car crash on Route 93 north prior to Freeport Street and got off the highway in the Neponset area.

State Police report Richard Saunders, 48, drove into Port Norfolk, where officers found him under a car on Taylor Street. They add nobody appeared to be seriously hurt in the crash. Saunders was taken to Boston Medical Center with minor injuries.

1/14/12 - 1:50 pm

Boston Police report a man in his 20s was shot shortly before 2 p.m. at 23 Trull St. He was transported to Boston Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

The house is across the street from where Edward Andrade was fatally shot in the head last April.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today an alleged Red Line groper's admission to police can't be used against him because he gave it after shaking his head no after his arrest when asked if he wanted to talk to police.

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1/11/12 - 6:30 am

Boston Police report a city, state and federal effort to arrest a Dorchester man wanted on a variety of charges out of South Boston and Somerville.

Police say Rubenson Cherilus, 27, at first refused to surrender when police, troopers and marshals showed up at his 15 Brinsley St. residence around 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday and was cuffed only after he threw a gun out a window and then engaged in "a violent struggle." Cherilus had been on the state probation department's top-ten wanted list.

Cherilus was wanted for indecent exposure and drug dealing in South Boston and drug dealing and armed robbery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and illegal possession of a gun in Somerville, along with various charges related to poor driving habits.

He was arraigned today in Dorchester District Court on new gun and career-criminal charges related to the Walther .380 semiautomatic handgun he allegedly threw out the window yesterday, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports. Judge James Coffey set $100,000 bail, but revoked his bail on earlier charges, the DA's office says.

Innocent, etc.

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A man known identified by an alias was one of 50 people indicted as part of a ring that allegedly used the identities of real Puerto Ricans to provide documentation for foreigners in the U.S.

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1/11/12 - 10:00 pm

Somebody walking through Ronan Park was robbed around 10 p.m. Police are looking for a man in his late teens or early 20s, possibly Cape Verdean, about 5'5" with a thin build, dressed in a black hoodie, black ski mask and black pants, carrying a black gun, who ran from the Percival Street side of the park towards Adams Street.

A Jerome Street resident wonders what it will take to get this abandoned car removed:

This abandoned car has 4 flat tires and the oh so lovely graffiti on it. I have called bpd with no response. Can someone please do something?! I love explaining this to my 5 year old.

John Graham, 18, was ordered held without bail today on charges he murdered an Irish man after the annual Adams Corner Irish festival last fall and then shot two more men in a robbery attempt three weeks later, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

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