BOSTON (WHDH) - Two men convicted of murdering a Boston man during a Fourth of July celebration in 2018 were given life sentences on Thursday.
Shaundra Waller Lee took the stand at the sentencing and delivered a powerful victim impact statement moments before Michael Carleton and Travis Phillips were sentenced to spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
“I want you to know that you two have made my life a living hell. Never would I have imagined that I would be a widow at 35,” she said. “I never thought that I would watch my husband murdered in front of me while my boys played across the street. A week later, I gave birth to our twins — alone.”
Waller Lee was pregnant but not hurt in the drive-by shooting on Brookfield Street in Dorchester that night in 2018 while she sat on the street corner waiting with her husband to watch the fireworks. Deon Lee died at the hospital.
“I toss and turn many nights. Nightmares of July 4th, 2018. I so desperately want my life back. The life I had once before you took Deon away from me,” she said.
Prosecutors said video at the scene showed Carlton was driving as Phillips opened fire on Lee. They were arrested days later and both were convicted of first-degree murder in Suffolk County Superior Court on Wednesday.
Lee’s 11-year-old son asked prosecutors to read his victim impact statement before the court.
“Why would you take the only person that I looked up to,” it read. “Who is going to teach me to shave my mustache and beard?”
Relatives of the convicted killers declined to comment while leaving the courtroom. District Attorney Kevin Hayden said he hopes the life sentences send a strong message.
“You can’t get away with it. You’re not gonna get away with it,” he said. “We’re gonna hold them accountable.”
As those men begin their life sentences, Hayden said the motive for this murder still remains a mystery four years later.
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