A man convicted of manslaughter for a 2020 shooting that killed a woman in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison Monday.
Kristian Maraj, 26, was convicted in February in the shooting death of Felicity Coleman, 34, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said. On Monday, Maraj was sentenced to 17 to 20 years in prison for manslaughter and four years on an illegal firearm possession charge, which he will serve concurrently.
In the early morning hours of July 5, 2020, police responded to a report of a person shot in the area of 37 Stonehurst St. in Dorchester. At the scene, officers found the woman suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. The victim, identified as Coleman, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators believe the shooting came out of a fight that broke out between a group of people who had gathered near Stonehurt and Norton streets to set off fireworks on July 4.
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According to the DA, Maraj was one of the people involved in the fight. Prosecutors said in the moments before the shooting, he dropped a gun and a friend had attempted to take it away, running toward Maraj's home on Hamilton Street. Meanwhile, Maraj's father was stabbed trying to intervene in the fight. At that point Maraj ran back toward Hamilton Street to retrieve the gun, ran back to Norton Street and fired into a group of people, hitting and killing Coleman.
Coleman's cousin read a victim impact statement at the sentencing hearing.
"Although my cousin was not her killer’s direct target, he did have a target in mind. Please remember that this man made his decision to kill prior to doing so. The intent was in his heart to murder somebody, anybody as it was heard on the cameras. So I pray your honor you show the same mercy he did that night when he took Felicity Coleman away from us," the statement said.
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The shootings came as Massachusetts was observing the Fourth of July, and after several people died in shootings and a stabbing around the area in the days before the holiday.
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