The case of a man charged with killing two engaged doctors in their luxury Boston condominium was turned over to the jury on Monday. Bampumim Teixeira, 33, has pleaded not guilty to murder in the May 2017 deaths of Dr. Richard Field and Dr. Lina Bolanos.
The case of a man charged with killing two engaged doctors in their luxury Boston condominium was turned over to the jury on Monday. Attorneys delivered closing arguments Monday following nine days of testimony in the trial.
Bampumim Teixeira, 33, has pleaded not guilty to murder in the May 2017 deaths of Dr. Richard Field and Dr. Lina Bolanos. The pair was discovered in their condo with their throats slashed and hands behind their backs, according to authorities. Teixeira was shot by police when he was arrested at the scene.
The suspect had no known personal relationship with the victims but had once worked as a concierge in their building, prosecutors said. Teixeira told investigators he was having an affair with Bolanos. He said Field came home and became enraged, and killed Bolanos in a jealous fit of rage. Teixeira said he then killed Field to protect himself.
Teixeira told officers it happened after he snuck in the building to see Bolanos, who he said he had an affair with while previously working as a doorman in the building.
“Either real or imagined, he believed he was having a relationship with Lina Bolanos,” Teixeira's lawyer Steven Sack said.
Sack was the first to present closing arguments. He asserted that there was no credible evidence showing his client is guilty and told jurors his client did not commit murder.
"I never told you he didn't kill Richard Field, because he did,'' Sack told the jury during his closing statement. "He killed him in self-defense, and that's not murder.''
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Sack asserted that the prosecution had made mistakes, such as boots that were mislabeled and surveillance video in which times were not accurate.
He also accused police of not being truthful and said that the only DNA on the knife was that of Field, which he said made sense, because of the self-defense claim.
In closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney John Pappas told jurors the evidence against Teixeira is overwhelming. He called Teixeira's version of events "utterly absurd and ridiculous" and accused him of trying to destroy the victims' names in an act of self-preservation.
“Lina will forever be Richard’s fiancé, but never his bride. Why? Because of this man, his ill-conceived plan,” Pappas said.
Images of the weapons he allegedly used and the couples’ jewelry he allegedly stole were shown on a monitor for the jury as the victims’ families fought back tears. Prosecutors also played the surveillance video that shows Teixeira outside the couples’ building in the hours before the killings.
“He was lurking out front, lurking out back, waiting for his chance,” Pappas said.
Both sides rested their cases Friday, the defense doing so without calling a single witness.
An hour-and-half-long recording of Bampumim’s interview with police a day after the slayings was played in court for the jury to hear.
Before the Thanksgiving holiday, jurors were shown a 20-minute video of the gruesome crime scene. Sgt. Det. Michael Devane told prosecutors he saw writing on the wall that read, “He killed my wife.”
Although it is unclear if the defendant had written the message himself, authorities said they found a black sharpie in his bag at the time.
While neither side could fully explain the message, the defense said police jumped to conclusions when they shot Teixeira that night.
Prosecutors allege Teixeira wrote it as a way to craft his story and throw police off track.
“The only thing real or imagined is the real evidence in this case and the story the defendant came up with,” Pappas said.
Teixeira is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of armed robbery and one count of home invasion.
The jury deliberated for about two hours on Monday before going home without reaching a verdict. They will return first thing Tuesday morning to resume deliberations.
Bolanos, 38, was a pediatric anesthesiologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear.
Field, 49, was an anesthesiologist at North Shore Pain Management.
