Opinion ID: 203446
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Dinho Fernandes Murder

Text: A relatively trivial dispute between classmates at a Brockton high school on the morning of March 17, 1999 started a sequence of events which led to the death of one of the students, Dinho Fernandes. The dispute continued after school ended and a scuffle followed, involving Fernandes and Adalberto Barros at Barros's home. Defendant Brandao was there to support Barros. Both defendant and Barros were cousins of Manny Monteiro. Later that day, Lopes and Monteiro were at work at a gas station in Brookline, Massachusetts when Monteiro received a page on his beeper around 4:00pm. After answering the page, Monteiro asked to borrow Lopes's car and told Lopes that a family member was having problems in Brockton. Lopes never knew who made the call. The defense theory was that the call came from Barros, not the defendant. Lopes offered to drive Monteiro to Brockton in Lopes's rental car, a bright red Dodge Stratus. Lopes and Monteiro stopped twice en route, first at Monteiro's house, then in Randolph, Massachusetts to pick up Louis Rodrigues, another member of Stonehurst. Lopes explained to Rodrigues that they were going -4- to Brockton to check out Manny's cousin. The trio then drove to Brandao's home in Brockton. There was no evidence about the prior relationship between Brandao and his cousin Manny Monteiro. Shortly after the Stonehurst members arrived, a blue Honda occupied by Brandao and an unidentified male pulled up behind the Dodge. Although Brandao was Monteiro's cousin, this was the first time Monteiro's friend Lopes ever saw Brandao. The Dodge followed the Honda to nearby Hunt Street, where Brandao pointed out the window of the Honda toward three teenagers standing on the corner who appeared to be of Cape Verdean descent. In the Dodge, Lopes directed Monteiro and Rodrigues to blaze them. At the time, none of the three Stonehurst members were armed so they needed to get a weapon. Both cars returned to Brandao's home, which Monteiro entered briefly before returning to the Dodge. There was no evidence on whether Brandao entered the house as well. The Dodge then followed the Honda back toward Hunt Street. Before they arrived, Rodrigues motioned for the Honda to pull over, and both cars stopped by the side of the road. Brandao got out of the Honda, and handed Monteiro, in the Dodge, a 9mm handgun. Brandao returned to the Honda, and the cars again drove toward Hunt Street. When Lopes spotted the teenagers Brandao had identified, Monteiro fired at them from the back window of the Dodge, emptying -5- his clip. Two of the teenagers were seriously wounded, and another, Dinho Fernandes, died on the scene. After the shooting, Lopes, Monteiro, and Rodrigues returned to Brandao's house. Monteiro went into the house with the shooting weapon and came out unarmed. The weapon, a 9mm handgun, had been used in earlier Stonehurst shootings before Brandao handed it to Monteiro.