Key Witness

Under aggressive cross-examination yesterday, the key witness in one of the worst homicide cases in recent Boston history admitted he lied to police repeatedly about the night of the killings, was a heavy drinker who had shot people, and had owned too many guns in his life "to keep track of. " Prosecutors are relying on Kimani Washington, a 36-year-old career criminal, to help convict Dwayne Moore and Edward Washington of the September 2010...

David Segui remembered "darts" but not dates. The former major leaguer testified for the prosecution Thursday in the Roger Clemens perjury trial, and he would have made a much better witness if he kept a better mental calendar. As it was, Segui was able to recall one specific moment that helped the government's case: a telephone conversation he says he had with Clemens' strength coach 11 years ago. "He mentioned that he had kept darts to get his wife off his back," Segui said.

They have seen videos of suicide bombings and read e-mails and Internet chats glorifying the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Jurors in the terrorism trial of Tarek Mehanna have endured 18 days of sometimes gruesome testimony in US District Court in Boston and heard testimony from FBI special agents who investigated the case and from young Muslims who once called Mehanna their friend. All have indicated that Mehanna encouraged Muslims to defend themselves and protect their lands, even if that meant using violence against foreign soldiers.

WASHINGTON - Among the 29 questions the Roger Clemens jury wanted to ask the pitcher's chief accuser, Brian McNamee, one cut to the heart of the case. "Why should we believe you when you have shown so many inconsistencies in your testimonies?" "I won't ask that," US District Judge Reggie Walton declared during a bench conference with trial attorneys to decide which juror questions he would read. "That's for them to decide. " The question makes it sound as if at least one of the jurors in the perjury case has serious doubts about the credibility of the government's key witness against the...

When his friend told him he knew a drug dealer they could rob for cash and cocaine, Kimani Washington said, he was in. Robbing drug dealers was a way of life, the key witness testified yesterday in the 2010 killing of a toddler and three adults on a Mattapan street. "They played the same game that I played," Washington said. "That was the only way we were going to make our living. " But when his friend, Dwayne Moore, told him that after the robbery he had shot everyone, including the 2-year-old son of one of the victims, Washington said, he wanted to find a gun "to kill him....

A key prosecution witness in the corruption trial of former Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi has begun his 18-month prison sentence. A spokesperson for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said Joseph Lally reported Monday to the minimum-security prison at Devens, Mass. Lally was originally assigned to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he was slated to cook and clean for high-security inmates awaiting trial. U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf agreed to a request to recommend that Lally serve his sentence in a minimum-security camp closer to home.

A federal judge has decided to let the star witness in the case against a United Arab Emirates naval officer accused of keeping an unpaid servant in his Rhode Island home to tell her story again on the witness stand. The decision to allow the former servant to testify came Monday from Judge Mary Lisi in U.S. District Court in Providence. The defense attorney for Col. Arif (uh-REEF') Mohamed (moh-HAH'-med) Saeed (sy-EED') Mohamed (moh-HAH'-med) Al-Ali sought to block Elizabeth Cabitla Ballesteros from returning to the witness stand after problems with the translation of her...

The key witness in one of the worst homicide cases in Boston's recent history acknowledged yesterday that he did not want to serve life in prison for the quadruple killing that took the lives of a mother and her 2-year-old son. Inmates are especially hostile to those convicted of killing children or women, said Kimani Washington, a 36-year-old career criminal who participated in the home invasion that led to the September 2010 killings....

A Hampden Superior Court judge ordered a new trial Monday for convicted murderer Charles Wilhite, who has been supported by several Springfield community members who say he is serving a life sentence for a killing he did not commit. David A.F. Lewis, Wilhite's lawyer, said he received a call from a court clerk who told him that Judge Peter A. Velis granted the new trial. Lewis said he had not seen the formal decision but he believes a new trial is necessary because two witnesses who placed Wilhite at the scene of the 2008 murder have recanted their...

Amid his year-by-year narrative of his complex relationship with Roger Clemens and performance-enhancing drugs, Brian McNamee weaved in a tale of two wives. He said it was his own wife who nagged him into keeping evidence that has become crucial in the trial of the storied pitcher, and it was a request from Clemens' wife that led to what McNamee called a "creepy" injection scene in a bathroom. Clemens' longtime strength coach testified Tuesday for a second day in the perjury trial, pushing his running total to roughly 10 hours on the stand, including the first few moments of what portends...

WASHINGTON — The key witness in the Roger Clemens perjury trial testified Monday about three other baseball players who he said took human growth hormone. Brian McNamee, Clemens' longtime strength and conditioning coach, told jurors that he provided HGH to current Yankee pitcher Andy Pettitte and former Yankee infielder Chuck Knoblauch. McNamee also testified that former Yankee pitcher Mike Stanton obtained HGH from drug dealer Kirk Radomski, after McNamee put them in touch.

Amid his year-by-year narrative of his complex relationship with Roger Clemens and performance-enhancing drugs, Brian McNamee weaved in a tale of two wives. He said it was his own wife who nagged him into keeping evidence that has become crucial in the trial of the storied pitcher, and it was a request from Clemens' wife that led to what McNamee called a "creepy" injection scene in a bathroom. Clemens' longtime strength coach testified Tuesday for a second day in the perjury trial, pushing his running total to roughly 10 hours on the stand, including the first few moments of what portends...

A Hampden Superior Court judge ordered a new trial Monday for convicted murderer Charles Wilhite, who has been supported by several Springfield community members who say he is serving a life sentence for a killing he did not commit. David A.F. Lewis, Wilhite's lawyer, said he received a call from a court clerk who told him that Judge Peter A. Velis granted the new trial. Lewis said he had not seen the formal decision but he believes a new trial is necessary because two witnesses who placed Wilhite at the scene of the 2008 murder have recanted their...

A 29-year-old Lynn man has been sentenced to 9 to 12 years in state prison for inflicting permanent brain and vision damage on his two-month-old daughter. José Aquino was sentenced today in Salem Superior Court by Judge Howard J. Whitehead. Aquino was convicted Monday following a six-day trial of assault and battery on a child causing substantial bodily injury. The jury had deliberated for three hours before returning its verdict. Aquino violently shook the baby on July 28, 2009, causing severe bleeding on her brain and other...

A federal court jury saw snippets of Roger Clemens denying steroid use at a now-famous 2008 congressional hearing, then listened Monday as Clemens' lawyer tried in fits and starts to declare that proceeding to be "nothing more than a show trial" that shouldn't have taken place. The perjury retrial of the seven-time Cy Young Award winning pitcher entered its third week, which unfolded as yet another session bogged down by constant objections. The day ended, however, with a cliffhanger that could prove crucial to the outcome.

Defense lawyers for John Edwards are expected to get their first shot at cross examining a former aide who is a key witness against his former boss. Andrew Young was the first witness called by prosecutors at the criminal trial of the two-time Democratic presidential candidate. Edwards has pleaded not guilty to six counts related to campaign finance violations. Young's testimony is essential to making the government's case that Edwards conspired to use secret payments from two wealthy donors to hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the White House...

One of the big questions that came out of this week's testimony from the key witness in a quadruple killing is how credible the jury would find him. Yesterday, a Suffolk prosecutor sought to buttress the statements of Kimani Washington, who participated in the robbery that led to the homicides, by putting his younger brother on the stand. Charles Washington, 31, began testifying yesterday against his cousin, Edward Washington, and Dwayne Moore, who are charged with first-degree murder.

DEDHAM -- The prosecution of two lifelong friends who were accused of agreeing to murder each other's worst enemies abruptly ended today when Norfolk prosecutors dropped all charges against Paul Moccia and Daniel P. Bradley. Moccia and Bradley, who met while students at Catholic Memorial High School decades ago, shuffled into Norfolk Superior Court with their legs hobbled by shackles and their arms restrained by handcuffs attached to short chains. But a few moments later, the men were freed of their chains, and Moccia was mobbed outside the courtroom by joyous relatives of the...

The jury weighing the case of two men accused of gunning down three adults and a toddler during a drug robbery in Boston has started its fourth day of deliberations. Dwayne Moore and Edward Washington each face four counts of first-degree murder. The victims were found on the streets of the city's Mattapan neighborhood in September 2010. A fifth victim was left paralyzed. The case hinges on the credibility of the prosecution's key witness, who admitted taking part in the robbery, but said he left before the shootings occurred.