BOSTON (WHDH) - The employer of two men killed in a 2016 trench collapse in Boston will be sentenced Wednesday after being found guilty of two counts of manslaughter and one count of witness intimidation.
Kevin Otto, owner of Atlantic Drain Service, is slated to be sentenced in Suffolk Superior Court in connection with the deaths of Kelvin Mattocks and Robert Higgins, according to the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office.
On Oct. 21, 2016, Mattocks and Higgins were working in a trench at 12 Dartmouth St. in Boston’s South End when it caved in, burying them up to their waists, the DA’s office said. A fire hydrant on the side of the collapsing trench fell into the hole, filling it with water and drowning the trapped victims.
Prosecutors say Otto and Atlantic Drain Service knowingly and willfully place the victims in extreme danger by failing to utilize cave-in protection. They added that Otto lied and produced false documentation to investigators in the wake of the men’s deaths.
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