Man Convicted Of Double Homicide That Injured Child At JP Complex: DA

JAMAICA PLAIN, MA — A Dorchester man who police say shot two men and injured a preschooler in 2018 was convicted on two counts of first degree murder charges, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said.

Wilvin Guity-Beckles, 32, of Dorchester, was charged in the shooting deaths of Christopher Joyce, 23, and Clayborn Blair, 58, and in the injury of a 4-year-old child, and convicted by a jury last week, Hayden said.

According to prosecutors, On May 4, 2018, Guity-Beckels was in the rear passenger's seat of a car that arrived in the area of Chestnut Avenue shortly before 9:45 p.m. on May 4. He got out of the car and walked into the Mildred C. Hailey Apartments complex, where he opened fire on a group of people standing in the courtyard.

Joyce and Blair, who were among approximately 15 people standing in the park, were fatally struck in the spray of gunfire. Boston Police homicide detectives and Suffolk prosecutors later received information that a bullet had also grazed a 4-year-old boy; he was not seriously injured and received treatment for a graze wound to his ear at an area health center.

Among the evidence collected during the course of an investigation into the shooting was footage from more than a dozen surveillance cameras captured the assailant's movements before, during, and after the shooting. The footage depicts the shooter wearing distinctively patterned sneakers, which were later recovered during the execution of a search warrant at Guity-Beckels' home, prosecutors said.

An attorney for Guity-Beckels did not respond to a request for comment from Patch.

"This individual opened fire on a group of more than a dozen people, without regard for who his bullets struck or the harm they inflicted," Hayden said. "These verdicts can never provide what the victims' loved ones want and truly deserve – to have their loved ones back in their arms – but they help ensure that the individual who took their lives will not have the opportunity to inflict harm in the community again."