FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) — Two men have pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of a 15-year-old New Bedford boy killed in a dispute involving rival groups from different areas of the city, prosecutors said Thursday.
Jose Lopez, 19, was sentenced to 17 to 20 years in state prison after pleading guilty this week in Fall River Superior Court in the death of Mateo Morales in August 2016, according to the Bristol district attorney’s office.
Luis Class, 25, was sentenced to serve 15 to 18 years in state prison.
Lopez delivered the fatal stab wound, prosecutors said.
The stabbing stemmed from an earlier incident when Mateo and a friend had gone to a different part of the city and were jumped and beaten, prosecutors said. Social media posts about the beating escalated tensions on both sides.
Mateo and Class later had a verbal altercation in Mateo’s neighborhood, and Mateo threw something at Class’s car, prosecutors said.
Class, left, but returned with Lopez and others, and that’s when the attack occurred.
Morales was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
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