BOSTON (WHDH) - A man who is already behind bars for an unrelated crime was indicted Monday for allegedly beating another man with a rock at a homeless encampment in Boston last year, officials said.
Jaques Merveille, 32, was indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury on charges of assault and battery causing serious bodily injury and armed robbery in connection with the savage 2017 assault outside Copley Square, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced Monday.
Officers responding to a reported assault in the area of Copley Square on April 27 found a 51-year-old man bleeding profusely from a head wound, prosecutors said. The man was rushed to Boston Medical Center with critical injuries that required emergency surgery.
An investigation later determined that Merveille bashed the victim with a rock during an altercation at a homeless encampment along a Turnpike exit ramp near Copley Square.
“If the assailant in this case believed no one would investigate an attack on a homeless man, he was badly mistaken,” Conley said in a statement. “The victim was vulnerable, but he wasn’t forgotten or ignored. Troopers, detectives, prosecutors, and even civilian witnesses stepped up to see justice done for him. These indictments bring us one step closer to that goal.”
Merveille is currently serving a 3 ½ year sentence for possessing heroin with intent to distribute.
He is scheduled to face trial in Boston Municipal Court later this month on an unrelated case in which he is accused of assaulting a store clerk.
An arraignment date for the assault charge has not yet been scheduled.
(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)