Family Of Marine Killed Outside Boston Bar Pressing Charges

BOSTON — The family of a recently-discharged Marine who was stabbed to death outside a Boston bar over St. Patrick's Day weekend plans to file a lawsuit against the bar, their lawyer says.

23-year-old Daniel Martinez, of Illinois, was visiting a friend in Boston for the holiday weekend when police say he was fatally stabbed by a bouncer at Sons of Boston who wouldn't allow him back into the club.

The bouncer, Alvaro Larrama, 38, of East Boston is now facing a murder charge after he surrendered himself to police on Monday, March 21.

The Martinez family intends to sue Sons of Boston once Daniel's estate is finalized, Thomas Flaws, the lawyer representing the Martinez family said in a meeting over Zoom Thursday.

"We intend to learn everything Sons of Boston did in hiring the man who stabbed Daniel. Did they look into his background? Did they train him?" Flaws said. "Did they, as the city of Boston says, allow him to work the door with a weapon?"

Larrama is currently being held without bail, and Sons of Boston's entertainment license was suspended indefinitely after police said the establishment failed to call the police following the bouncer's suspected role in the incident and had allowed armed security without approval.

City officials explained that the Sons of Boston's bar license is also suspended due to the bar never submitting a plan for security and operations to the city when it had its entertainment license renewed last year.

On Saturday, March 19, police responded to the Union Street bar just after 7 p.m. after receiving reports of a stabbing. Upon arrival, police found Martinez suffering from a single stab wound to the chest. Emergency crews brought him to the hospital where he later died.

According to prosecutors, surveillance footage shows Larrama denying Martinez and a friend entrance to the pub, then following them down the block towards Paddy O's. In the video, prosecutors say Martinez hit Larrama in the head with an aluminum beer bottle, then Larrama struck Martinez in the chest.

Police say Larrama then returned to Sons of Boston, where he washed his hands, threw away his sweatshirt, turned his shirt inside out, and left out a back entrance of the bar.

Boston police issued a warrant for Larrama's arrest after a few of his colleagues identified him as the person who stabbed Martinez, but he turned himself in two days later, police say.

"The lawsuit will give us subpoena power and require Sons of Boston to be transparent and turn over everything they have regarding this horrific incident," Flaws said. "We will get to the bottom of this and we will do everything we can to ensure this type of thing never happens again."

"The heartbreak for Mr. Martinez's family, and for all those who knew and served with him, is incalculable," Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said. "This is also heartbreaking for Boston because it represents an image of the city that does not truly reflect who we are."

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