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Dorchester man sentenced in 2011 slaying of Brockton man; motive was dispute over car repair

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February 08, 2012|By Martin Finucane

A 39-year-old Dorchester man was sentenced today to 15 years in state prison for his role in the shooting death last year of a 36-year-old Brockton auto mechanic over a car repair dispute, prosecutors said.

Mario Burns pleaded guilty to manslaughter one day after his trial began in Suffolk Superior Court.

Burns was angry with Charles Cantave about a used engine Cantave had installed in Burns’s wife’s car. The two men had gone to small claims court over the issue, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office said.

Burns did not fire the gun in the March 29, 2010, fatal shooting, prosecutors said. But he did point Cantave out to Cornelius Evans, 36, and knew that Evans intended to murder Cantave, rather than just threaten him, prosecutors said.

Evans got out of Burns’s car and shot Cantave. After the shooting, Burns and Evans acted together to dispose of the murder weapon and some of Evans’s clothes.

Evans pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder and is serving a life sentence.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys had jointly recommended the 15-year sentence to Judge Christine McEvoy after Burns offered to admit guilt and forgo any appeals.