Quincy

Man charged with 2022 murder of Mass. high schooler due in court

Keniel Diaz-Romero, formerly of Quincy, is facing a murder charge in the February 2022 shooting death of Weymouth High School student Nathan Paul

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One of the men accused in the 2022 murder of a 17-year-old in Quincy, Massachusetts, pleaded not guilty at a Tuesday court appearance.

Keniel Diaz-Romero was arrested in Puerto Rico, and is now back in Massachusetts.

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Quincy police and Massachusetts State Police actually traveled to Puerto Rico to take Diaz-Romero into custody last week. He was arraigned Tuesday in Norfolk Superior Court on murder and other charges.

Keniel Diaz-Romero is scheduled to be arraigned at 2 p.m.

It was back in February 2022 that 17-year-old Weymouth High School senior Nathan Paul was shot and killed in Quincy.

At the time, prosecutors said Paul was selling THC vape cartridges, and a group of at least six teens was going to buy a box with fake money. But when Paul spotted the counterfeit money and went after them, that’s when he was shot and crashed his car near the Germantown housing development – later dying at the hospital, prosecutors said.

Keniel Diaz-Romero, formerly of Quincy, was taken into custody in Puerto Rico and brought back to Massachusetts, where he'll be arraigned Tuesday on a murder charge for allegedly shooting Nathan Paul in Quincy on Feb. 15, 2022.

Eighteen-year-old Jaivon Harris was arrested and charged with murder and robbery. Then in July, four juveniles were arrested and charged in connection to the murder.

Diaz-Romero was indicted last year on a murder charge, but not arrested until investigators tracked him to Puerto Rico last week. In addition to murder, he also faces charges for larceny, conspiracy and unlawfully carrying a firearm.

He was ordered held without bail after pleading not guilty.

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