A Peabody, Massachusetts, man has been convicted of murdering his estranged wife in the driveway of her parents' Everett home in 2018, after she filed for divorce from him and revealed she was being verbally and physically abused, according to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office.
Emilio Matarazzo was found guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of his estranged wife, Ersilia Cataldo Matarazzo in December 2018, a news release from Middlesex DA and Everett Police Chief Steven Mazzie said. The trial lasted 16 days, and was held in Middlesex Superior Court.
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Police in Everett responded to a reported shooting at around 8:40 a.m. on Dec. 19, 2018 on Central Avenue, and found the 50-year-old woman with multiple gunshot wounds to her torso, sitting inside her car in the driveway of her parents' house, officials said. She was pronounced dead on scene.
A witness described to police hearing gunshots, and seeing from her window a man later identified as Matarazzo approach the car and shoot a long-range gun.
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After he shot his wife, Mr. Matarazzo walked into a police station and was arrested; investigators searched a home owned by the man, and found the murder weapon — , a Beretta .12 gauge shotgun, officials said. It was found behind a workbench in the basement of the home, and had the same serial number as the gun missing from the gun safe at his home.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), visiting www.thehotline.org or texting LOVEIS to 22522.
Law enforcement said that after investigating, they learned that she had filed for divorce from her husband about a month before the killing, and moved into her parents' house. Prosecutors said that she revealed that she was being abused verbally and physically by her husband — to the point of being strangled and scratched by him.
Mr. Matarazzo went to the church where she worked during a Christmas party the day before the killing, and angrily demanded to see his wife, before being asked to leave and pushing his daughter outside, authorities said.
Matarazzo is expected to be sentenced on Thursday.
This is the second domestic violence murder conviction at the Middlesex DA's office this month.
