BROCKTON, Mass. (WHDH) – – Police say 35-year-old Carlos Ramon Velazquez was charged with the brutal murder of 74-year-old minister Lee Harmon on August 20.
The father of seven was riding his bike to go visit his daughter when he was attacked with a hammer and left to die on the street.
Harmon’s family and friends packed the courtroom on Thursday, looking for answers.
“Why? Why did he have to beat him like that? I want to know why he had to kill him like that,” said Francis Harmon the victim’s wife.
The prosecutor said a witness heard Harmon’s attacker blame him for what happened.
“He was overheard a younger man saying, ‘if you never hit me with the hammer, none of this would have ever happened,’” said Jeremy Beth Kusmin, prosecutor.
Harmon was found bloody and dying on a Brockton street corner by witnesses who said they heard the sounds of a fight. Investigators say Harmon was beaten with his own hammer that he planned to use to fix the shower curtain of his disabled adult daughter.
“I’m just glad they got him, just glad they got him,” said one of Harmon’s family members.
Prosecutors say DNA tied Velazquez to a cap found at the murder scene and to minister’s bike.
Velazquez showed up at Boston Medical Center the night of the murder, with injuries he said he got when attacked by a group of men. Prosecutors also said he tried to hide his ponytail and grow facial hair to change his appearance, but his lawyer insists his client wasn’t acting like a guilty man.
“The commonwealth is alleging all of these actions consistent with guilt, but the main issue on those things usually is whether or not someone fled and he didn’t flee,” said William Sullivan, defense attorney.