Michael Chesna Obituary, Emanuel Lopes Convicted For The Murder Of Weymouth Police Sgt.
Michael Chesna Obituary, Murder, Death – A jury convicted Emanuel Lopes guilty of all charges pertaining to the July 2018 rampage in Weymouth that claimed the lives of witness Vera Adams and police Sergeant Michael Chesna. Following the second trial on the accusations, the court broke out into cheers. Cindy Chesna, Chesna’s widow, said on the courthouse steps, “We finally got the justice that he deserved,” surrounded by family and friends.
“Michael was an authentic American patriot. He loved his country. The officer’s mother, Maryann Chesna, said on the steps, “He fought for us.” The first trial from last summer was declared a mistrial on July 10 after the jury deliberated for weeks without reaching a verdict. This time, the jury deliberated for around seven days, beginning on Thursday, February 8, and ultimately found Lopes guilty of eleven charges pertaining to the early July 15, 2018, killings.
A defense plea for a fresh trial in the case was earlier on Friday denied by Judge Beverly Cannone of Norfolk Superior Court. This time, the jury was selected from Bristol County because the region is sufficiently south that many jurors would be more likely to get their news from Providence, Rhode Island, than from Boston, providing a more unbiased pool, as Cannone had said in a previous hearing before the trial in December.
The excitement of Chesna, 42, and Adams, 77,’s relatives and friends was uncontrollable when the two major allegations were made public. The jury determined that Lopes was responsible for Chesna’s first-degree murder and Adams’ second-degree murder. Furthermore, Lopes was convicted on two counts of trying to kill two other police officers at the Weymouth scene, assaulting Chesna with a rock as a weapon, possessing a gun illegally,
Stealing a firearm, evading the scene of an accident that caused property damage, reckless driving, operating a motor vehicle without authorization, and purposefully destroying property worth less than $1,200. Lopes can get a life term in jail. Lopes and his friends were allegedly having a great time that July night when they made the decision to rent a movie from a RedBox. But Lopes received a call from a man who had previously dated Lopes’ girlfriend. This call made Lopes furious.
Lopes was charged with evading the scene of an accident causing property damage after he stole his girlfriend’s white BMW and crashed it into a Dodge near South Shore Hospital as the evening carried on into the early hours of the morning. Soon, 911 calls about Lopes’s reckless driving and subsequent rock-throwing in a residential neighborhood would reach Weymouth Police. When Chesna discovered Lopes, he was holding a large rock, and he instructed him to put it down.
Instead, Lopes struck Chesna in the head with the rock, then walked over to the fallen officer, grabbed his service pistol, and shot five times, striking him in the head and chest. Another cop shot Lopes through the window of the police cruiser, striking him in the leg. The police would soon find out that a bystander, Vera Adams, 77, had been shot and murdered in the mayhem while she was sitting on her neighbor’s porch. Attorney Larry Tipton contended on Lopes’s behalf that he was not guilty of any crimes. Tipton claims that his client has a significant history of mental illness.