Stuart, Convicted Of Aiding 1989 Killing Of Sister-In-Law, Found Dead
CAMBRIDGE (AP) -- Matthew Stuart, who helped his brother Charles cover up the shooting death of his pregnant wife in 1989 in a killing that inflamed racial tensions in Boston, has died, authorities said Sunday.
Carole DiMaiti Stuart was shot to death more than two decades ago and the child she delivered after she was shot died days later. Her husband, Charles Stuart, blamed the crime on a black man, heightening racial strife in Boston. Police focused on a paroled convict, William Bennett, as a suspect. He later sued the city after being cleared.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Doug Cope reports.
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Matthew Stuart admitted to police a few months after the shooting that he helped hide the gun believed to have been used by Charles Stuart to kill his wife. Days after his brother confessed, Charles Stuart plunged to his death from a bridge.
Matthew Stuart's family was notified of his death and his body was transferred to the medical examiner, Cambridge police spokesman Daniel Riviello said Sunday. He provided no details.
The Middlesex district attorney's office does not comment on non-suspicious deaths, a spokeswoman said.
In 1992, Matthew Stuart pleaded guilty to conspiracy, possession of a firearm and three other charges in exchange for three to five years in state prison. He was released in 1995 and placed on probation.
In May 1997, Revere police arrested Stuart on drug charges after police allegedly saw him and three other men distributing cocaine. He pleaded innocent to drug charges and he was returned to prison for violating his probation.
His attorney appealed and prosecutors dropped the drug charges. The following September, a Suffolk Superior Court judge formally ended Stuart's probation, ruling that the evidence was not strong enough to consider him in violation of probation.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
