"Sex-abuse victim pleads guilty to slaying" by Evan Allen | Globe Correspondent, May 16, 2013
Tortured for years by memories of sexual abuse by a family friend he allegedly suffered, 17-year-old Marco Tulio Flores finally snapped. In a case that prosecutors called “vigilante justice,” he armed himself with a knife, a dog chain, and a video camera, and went to Jaime Galdamez’s East Boston apartment on May 22, 2011.
His abuser did not fight back: Instead, he admitted the abuse on camera, wound duct tape around his face, and asked to be strangled instead of slashed to death.
Flores, now 19, pleaded guilty in Suffolk Superior Court on Thursday to voluntary manslaughter, arson, and attempting to escape, avoiding a first-degree murder trial....
In a video he made showing himself before and after the death, Flores said he was going to “kill a pervert,” said Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum said. When Flores went to Galdamez’s home, he interrogated him on tape about the abuse, which Galdamez first denied, then admitted, Polumbaum said.
Flores gave Galdamez duct tape to put on his face and placed the dog chain around his neck. At one point, Flores appeared to be about to cut Galdamez’s neck, Polumbaum said, but Galdamez said: “Don’t do that. There would be too much blood.” He asked to be strangled instead.
To bad he wasn't a CIA interrogator. Then he would be cleared of all charges and rewarded with honors.
The next video shows Galdamez dead with the chain around his neck, Polumbaum said. Flores sits on the bed next to the body and says, “I can think so much clearer now.”
Flores burned down Galdamez’s home the next morning, but first he removed computers and a television. On the computers, Polumbaum said, investigators found child pornography and chat-room conversations in which Galdamez described his attraction to young boys....
“We hope that a 15-year sentence is enough to say we’re not going to give vigilante justice a pass,” Polumbaum said. “I know there are people out there saying, ‘Let him go; don’t prosecute him at all.’ You can’t go out and kill somebody, no matter what he did to you.”
Tell it to Obama and his kill list.
Flores was composed and polite throughout the hearing. As Polumbaum recited the facts of the case, however, Flores appeared at times to fight back tears, blinking rapidly and raising his eyes to the ceiling. Family members and supporters filled the benches, some crying quietly as the sexual abuse was detailed....
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