"Suspect arrested a year after East Boston murder; Victim told father about prior beatings" by Evan Allen | Globe Staff August 17, 2014
When police told Michael Bradley last year that his daughter was dead, he thought immediately of Chhoeut Chin, a man whom he said his daughter had confided was beating her.
“I said, ‘Well, it’s gotta be him,’ ” said Bradley. Chin wanted a romantic relationship with his daughter, 32-year-old Sherry Bradley, but she did not share his feelings, Bradley said. “He’d find her wherever she was.”
Sherry was found dead Aug. 1, 2013, at 800 Border St. in East Boston. More than a year later, on Friday, members of the Boston police fugitive unit arrested 42-year-old Lynn resident Chin in Lowell and charged him with her murder.
Boston police have not released information about how Sherry was killed.
The medical examiner did not declare her death a homicide until April of this year. Boston Police spokeswoman Officer Rachel McGuire said the delay was “due to the investigation and the process that the medical examiner’s office goes through with the autopsy.”
Chin has not yet been appointed an attorney, and it was not immediately clear if he had retained his own lawyer.
Attempts to reach his family and friends Saturday were unsuccessful. One man listed in a public records database as an associate of Chin said he did not know anything.
More information will be released at Chin’s arraignment in East Boston District Court on Monday, McGuire said.
Police have described Chin as Sherry Bradley’s former boyfriend, but her father said that, as far as he knew, the two never dated.
Michael Bradley said he has never been told how his daughter died.
“I have no idea,” he said. “The only thing they do is tell me where they found her.”
Bradley said he met Chin just once, at a family barbecue July 3, 2013. They talked for maybe 10 minutes, he said, and Chin complimented him on his backyard and his family.
“He said he liked Sherry, a good girl, and all that. . . . And that was about it,” he said.
He said Sherry sometimes stayed with Chin, but she was living in a rented room with another woman in Lynn, where she had been born and raised.
The day after the barbeque, Bradley said, his daughter came back to his house and was planning to stay there but said Chin had stolen all her belongings. Sherry told her mother that Chin had beaten her on several occasions.
After Sherry’s death, Bradley said, a friend whose phone she often borrowed called to say that Chin had sent Sherry 200 text messages leading up to her death threatening to kill her and warning her that “You ain’t gonna make it tonight.”
Bradley said his son took the messages to police.
Sherry had four children, who she loved to take to play areas like Bonkers, said Bradley. She worked as an administrative assistant, and loved music and dancing, he said.
Bradley said that Sherry’s children, now aged 2 to 14, are doing relatively well.
“Well, it’s been a year. So we’re not doing too bad. Time heals,” he said. “But everybody misses her.”
That is a strange thing to say only a year later, but whatever.
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NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Lynn man ordered held in 2013 killing of former girlfriend" by Faiz Siddiqui | Globe correspondent August 19, 2014
The attorney for a Lynn man accused in his girlfriend’s August 2013 murder was defiant in court Monday, suggesting that state officials had provided too few details about the case for him to provide adequate counsel for the man and his family.
I was told she was not his girlfriend, but whatever.
Brian Kelley, the court-appointed attorney for Chhoeut Chin, 42, who has been charged with murder, said the Commonwealth’s handling of the case thus far struck him as “Kafkaesque.”
On Monday, Chin was ordered held without bail in the August 2013 slaying of Sherry Bradley, 32, of Lynn. Chin was kept out of public view at his arraignment in East Boston District Court Monday, as he pleaded not guilty.
Police said a review of surveillance video, text messages, and witness interviews led to Chin’s arrest Friday, more than a year after the killing.
Bradley’s body was discovered in a garage at 800 Border St. in East Boston on the morning of Aug. 1, 2013, but her death was not ruled a homicide until April, when a medical examiner determined that “compression of the neck” caused her death.
That's the because the state doesn't have a pul$e. Where did all the money go?
Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Mark Lee said Chin’s distinctive 1999 Honda Civic was seen in the same location around the time the body was found.
Authorities seized the car registered in Chin’s name the week after the killing.
Kelley explained Monday that only “four or five lines” of information have been provided to him by the prosecution in the case.
The rest of his knowledge of the case has come from local newspapers, he said. Kelley argued that his client should not be held.
In a police report filed in court, authorities said Chin fled Lynn after an interview with detectives. Kelley said, however, that his client had never left the state and pointed to the fact that his client was arrested at his home in Lynn.
“The argument that the court should not detain him is obvious,” Kelley said. “And I don’t think there’s a very strong case for the government. It may be strong; we don’t know.”
“I want the Commonwealth to turn over exactly what they have today, as soon as possible,” Kelley said in an interview after the hearing. “I did not hear an explanation as to why it took so long to come to the conclusion they did.”
I'm not surprised. Sloppy police work is standard in this state, especially east.
A probable cause hearing was scheduled for Sept. 17.
Lee, the prosecutor, said authorities had received reports about alarming behavior by Chin even before workers cleaning a garage in East Boston found Bradley’s body. Family members and friends of Bradley described Chin’s relationship with the victim as “possessive, controlling, and at times aggressive,” according to the police report filed in court.
He would make a good president or leader of a country.
“There were reports of stalking-type behavior, as well as documented threats to kill her,” Lee said.
Then why not show the defense? Will have to anyway.
Chin had prior assault charges, Lee said, and had served time in prison.
That about wraps it up.
Chin told detectives during an interview last year that he did not know Bradley and did not recognize the picture of her that was shown to him, according to the police report.
An obvious lie.
Kelley said his client has been a legal resident of the United States since 1984, is unmarried, and has a 22-year-old daughter. He is originally from Cambodia.
Chin’s relatives were emotional outside the courtroom Monday, holding tissues and wiping tears. Relatives said they had no comment on the case.
The victim’s father, Michael Bradley, previously told the Globe that Bradley had four children, worked as an administrative assistant, and loved music and dancing.
In that interview, Michael Bradley said he had never been told how his daughter died.
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