Teen who beheaded fellow classmate and chopped off his hands for talking to his girlfriend goes on trial
Prosecutors in Massachusetts have reportedly said that a 17-year-old boy was responsible for decapitating a classmate two years ago because he suspected that the victim was romantically involved with his girlfriend at the time. The girlfriend, 18-year-old Leilany Dejesus, testified on April 29 that Mathew Borges had been filled with rage and jealousy when he saw her talking to Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino at Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Boston.
NBC 10 Boston reported that Dejesus cried when she was describing how Borges used to yell at her for talking to Viloria-Paulino. She also testified that her former boyfriend had accused her of flirting with Viloria-Paulino.
According to NBC, Dejesus said that Borges had been so furious that at one point the school dean had to escort him out of the cafeteria. The then 15-year-old Borges allegedly killed his fellow student Viloria-Paulino, beheaded him, cut off his hands, and then dumped the remains in the Merrimack River back in November 2016.
The 16-year-old Viloria-Paulino and Borges had gone to the riverbank to smoke marijuana. WCVB-TV reported that the student's family reported him as missing the next day. MassLive also reported that the mutilated body of Viloria-Paulino was found in December 2016 by a woman walking her dog.
Essex County assistant district attorney James Gubitose read out a text message that Borges had allegedly sent to a female friend during his opening statements of the trial. The text message read: "I think of killing someone and I smirk. It’s all I think about every day but I control myself... I like the sound of it — the idea of causing pain in someone getting in my way or causing me pain."
The prosecutors also said that Borges had told some other teens who were interviewed by authorities later: "I killed him. He’s dead." The teen was allegedly seen on surveillance footage walking toward the river along with Viloria-Paulino on the night of the gruesome murder. Prosecutors also said that while the two teens were out by the river, a group of Borges' friends broke into Viloria-Paulino's home. The teens confessed to authorities that Borges had planned to kill his fellow classmate.
It was also alleged that a note which was found by investigators revealed how Borges had planned to carry out the murder. The note allegedly said: "Go chill with him in his crib alone... bring duffel bag, wear bags on shoes, wear clothes you don't care about."
Ed Hayden, Borges' attorney, said that the text messages and the note which was cited by prosecutors do not prove that Borges is a killer. He also said that Borges had broken into Viloria-Paulino's home but did not murder him.
The attorney told WBZ-TV: "There is no murder weapon, there are no tools to dismember a body, there are no fingerprints, there is no blood, there is no DNA." The text messages which were cited by the prosecutors were "loaded with the f-bomb, the n-word, weed, and sex. That’s what that group chat was about."
He continued: "In these thousands of texts and messages there is no evidence that Matthew killed Lee. Anything incriminating is referring to the house break. There is nothing in all these messages." The teen is currently being tried by an adult for first-degree murder.