LAWRENCE, MASS. (WHDH) - A vigil and community meeting will be held in Lawrence Tuesday night to honor murdered 16-year-old Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino, as the trial for his murder suspect continues.
Mathew Borges, 15, is charged with killing a high school classmate whose headless body was found near a river. Borges said in a police report made public Monday that they had gone to smoke marijuana together and he had last seen the classmate alive.
Borges was held without bail after pleading not guilty at his brief arraignment in Lawrence District Court on a murder charge. Though he is 15, Borges is being prosecuted as an adult, so court proceedings were open to the public. His lawyer, Edward Hayden, did not argue for bail.
The body of Viloria-Paulino was found near the Merrimack River in Lawrence on Thursday by a woman walking her dog. Police recovered his head nearby. His forearms had also been cut off, but it was unclear if they were recovered.
Borges told police that he and Viloria-Paulino had gone to the river on Nov. 18 to smoke pot and later parted ways.
But the police report also said Borges told a witness that he had “done something bad” and that he had “stabbed a kid and cut his head off killing him.” Borges was arrested Saturday. Both boys were sophomores at Lawrence High School.
Hayden, the defense lawyer, said Borges was a student in good standing with a part-time job. But he said he didn’t know enough about the case to comment other than to say Borges is “holding up well as can be expected of someone facing this kind of charge.”
The motive for the killing is unclear and remains under investigation, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said. Police recovered evidence at Borges’ home, he said. Blodgett said in a press conference that Borges’ suspected murderer mutilated Viloria-Paulino’s body so badly that the autopsy took 11 hours, and said that the killing was “horrific.”
Borges is being held at a youth detention facility and is due back in court Jan. 10.
Viloria-Paulino’s family has been critical of police, saying they at first said he was just a runaway and took too long to launch an investigation. Police haven’t responded to that.
The vigil will be held Tuesday night at 6 p.m. in Common Park at 200 Common Street in Lawrence, and will be followed by a community meeting at 7 p.m. at 275 Essex Street.
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