Worcester Man Indicted For Halmstad Street Murder

WORCESTER, MA—A Worcester man is facing murder charges for allegedly killing another man, found burned face down with a head injury on the floor of an apartment.

Brayan Flores was indicted on Friday by a Worcester County Grand Jury for murder in the death of a 53-year-old man found in a home at 12 Halmstad St. last summer, according to Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early, Jr.

On July 25, David Carlson’s body was found by first responders arriving at the address for a reported fire.

Flores, 29, Vernon Street, Worcester, initially had been charged with assault and battery with serious bodily injury. After the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the death to be a homicide, the charge was upgraded to murder in Worcester Central District Court.

On Tuesday, July 25, 2017, around 11:45 p.m., Worcester police officers were dispatched to the area of 12 Halmstad, Apt. 1, for a report of a potential house fire in progress. Neighbors smelled smoke in the building and called 911. The Worcester Fire Department arrived, put out the small fire in the living room, and informed police that there was a deceased person in the living room, said police.

Officers found a 55-year-old man face down in the living room in his apartment, his lower body badly burned and also appeared to have a head injury, said police. The fire appeared to have been confined to the small area near the man, which paramedics pronounced deceased.

Around nine minutes later, someone called police to say a drunk man was stumbling around in traffic on Greenwood Street, which intersects Halmstad Street. At 12:30 a.m., officers located a man at 15 Blackstone River Road who matched that description, identified as Flores.

With Friday's indictment, the case moves to Worcester Superior Court.

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