DEDHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - The jury returned to deliberating the fate of accused double murderer Emanuel Lopes Thursday. Late in the day, the 12-member panel requested additional medical records of the defendant but finished without reaching a verdict.
The jury, which is bused in from Worcester County, will resume Friday morning for the third day of deliberations.
Lopes has been on trial on charges he shot and killed Weymouth police Sgt. Michael Chesna and 77-year-old Vera Adams, an innocent bystander, who was sitting on her sun porch and was shot to death back in July of 2018.
During final arguments Wednesday, prosecutors, gripping the gun they say accused killer Emanuel Lopes used to murder both victims, said Lopes’s actions were deliberate when he hit Chesna in the head with a rock and grabbed his gun to open fire.
Lopes’s legal team was painting a very different picture on why the now-25-year-old opened fire, explaining he’d been wrestling with mental illness for years, and the system failed him.
“This case is not about sympathy for Mr. Lopes, it’s just about understanding what happened that day,” defense attorney Larry Tipton said. “It’s about conduct that was not logical, rational, or based in reality.”
After two days of deliberations, the judge reminded the jury there is no timetable for reaching a verdict.
“Your deliberations take as long as you need for your deliberations to take,” the judge said.
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