SALEM, Mass. (WHDH/AP) – A man accused of stabbing his co-worker with a sushi knife at a Massachusetts restaurant in an unprovoked attack has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
The Essex district attorney’s office says 25-year-old Jaquan Huston was sentenced Wednesday in Salem to life with the possibility of parole after 20 years in the 2015 death of 38-year-old Elivelton Dias.
Authorities say Huston and Dias worked in the kitchen at a now-closed P.F. Chang’s restaurant at a Peabody mall. Dias had just returned to work after taking time off for the birth of his child.
They say Huston plunged a 12-inch knife into Dias’ back the evening of Aug. 29, 2015. Huston had claimed he overhead Dias talking about him in Spanish. But prosecutors say Dias was a Brazilian immigrant who spoke Portuguese.
In court, Dias’ wife said she forgives Huston for murdering her husband, but that nothing will fix the horrific crime.
Co-workers who knew Dias say a memorial will be built outside of the mall in his honor.
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