Key Witness Testifies On 43-Year-Old Mass. Slaying
WOBURN, Mass. (AP) — A New Hampshire man has told a jury about a night 43 years ago when he and two friends allegedly abducted another teen in a squabble over a girl and left him to die.
Prosecutors say the older teens abducted 15-year-old John McCabe in Tewksbury, Mass., in September 1969, bound him, taped his eyes and mouth and left him in a Lowell field where he suffocated. Charges were filed in 2011 after Edward Brown, 61, now of Londonderry, N.H., told his story to authorities.
On Friday, Brown testified in the murder trial of Michael Ferreira, 59, of Salem, N.H. Ferreira's attorney, Eric Wilson, has said Brown is a liar whose version of events doesn't match the evidence.
Walter Shelley, 61, of Tewskbury also has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge. Brown is charged with manslaughter in a plea agreement.
Brown testified the three forced McCabe into a car as he walked home from a school dance. He said thought his friends were only going to scare McCabe and rough him up because he had flirted with Shelley's girlfriend.
Brown said Ferreira and Shelley dragged McCabe out of the car. Brown said he sat on McCabe's legs while Ferreira hogtied him. He said he remembers McCabe struggling and crying.
Brown said the youths were shocked when they later returned to the field and found McCabe wasn't breathing. He said Ferreira warned them to keep quiet or he would kill them.
Brown testified he eventually told authorities his story because, "I'm a parent. If something happened to one of my children, I'd want to know," The Boston Globe reported.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
