Life In Prison For Jamaica Plain Clerk Killer
BOSTON (CBS) - A Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted a man of first-degree murder Tuesday in the shocking killing of a store clerk in Jamaica Plain.
Sixty-five year old Edward Corliss was found guilty of robbing and then shooting the clerk, Surendra Dangol, on the day after Christmas in 2009, at a Tedeschi's on Centre Street.
Jurors began deliberating Monday after two weeks of testimony.
WBZ-TV's Karen Anderson reports
The conviction comes with an automatic sentence of life in prison.
Dangol, 39, was an immigrant living in Somerville on a work visa. Friends say he was trying to create a better life for his wife and daughter, who he hoped to bring here from Nepal.
Corliss was linked to the crime through the getaway car, which was registered to his wife.
Police say his wife was the getaway driver, and confessed, but she died before the trial so her testimony could not be admitted.
An inmate testified that after he was arrested, Corliss hired a hit man to try to kill his wife because he believed she was cooperating with police.
A key witness in the case was Corliss' brother. He testified that Corliss confessed to the killing.
In surveillance tape of the murder, a man with a wig is seen threatening Dangol with a gun, and Dangol follows his orders: putting up his arms and then handing over cash from the drawer of the Tedesci's.
Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley says police and prosecutors did a magnificent job to stand up for a man who was an immigrant to this country with no one here to speak up for him.
He says police and prosecutors worked tirelessly to build a compelling, but circumstantial case.
Police investigated 300 different vehicles matching the description of the getaway car. They identified features like after-market hub caps to link it to Corliss.
Conley says a troubling aspect of the case is that Corlisss committed an identical crime in the late 1960's and was paroled by the same parole board that released Dominic Cinelli.
Cinelli killed Woburn police officer Jack Maguire during a robbery in December 2010.
WBZ-TV's Karen Anderson contributed to this report.
