Trial Begins In Dedham For Man Accused Of Killing Weymouth Cop

DEDHAM, MA — The 25-year-old man accused of killing a Weymouth police sergeant and a woman in 2018 is facing two counts of murder in a trial that began Thursday in Norfolk Superior Court, 7News Boston reported.

Emanuel Lopes has been ordered held without bail since his indictment after being accused in the 2018 killings of Officer Michael Chesna, 42, and Vera Adams, 77.

On the morning of July 15, 2018, Lopes, then 20, struck Chesna in the head with a large rock, took his gun, and then shot Chesna in the head and chest, the Norfolk District Attorney's Office said.

Chesna was responding to a report of an erratic driver near South Shore Hospital shortly after 7:30 a.m. when he found a BMW crashed and Lopes—the driver—vandalizing a home on Burton Terrace, according to officials.

Chesna drew his gun and gave commands before Lopes began his attack, officials said.

A second officer confronted Lopes, shooting him once in the lower leg before Lopes allegedly fled and fired off three more shots from Chesna's gun, officials said. One bullet traveled into a neighbor's home, killing a woman, 77-year-old Vera Adams, inside.

According to the Boston Globe, during the first day of trial, Lopes' attorney described Lopes' more than 11 years of suffering with his mental health, including claims that he heard voices telling him to harm himself.

About 20 different clinicians “diagnosed a young man with major mental illness,” the lawyer, Larry Tipton, said. “Symptoms of voices and shadows, people that weren’t there. Paranoia.”

Chesna was a father of two young children, ages 4 and 9. He was described as a family man. Chesna, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, would have been on the force six years tomorrow.

He grew up in Weymouth and graduated from Weymouth High. He got a bachelor's degree from Northeastern.

Adams was a lifelong Weymouth resident who graduated from Weymouth High in 1958. She worked at New England Telephone for several years and then Sullivan Insurance in Quincy for many years where she met some lifelong friends.

"Vera lived a quiet, modest life but didn’t let that stop her from enjoying people," her obituary read, in part. "She always lit up when she had a chance to see her friends’ children, grandchildren, and her cousins ... She will be remembered for her generosity when it was needed, and her kind demeanor."