The man accused of killing a Chelsea man inside his apartment back in 2010 was ordered held without bail by a Suffolk Superior Court clerk magistrate.
Mario Cruzado, 37, who has no permanent address, was arraigned and charged with first-degree murder for the homicide of Frederick Allen of Chelsea.
Chelsea Police officers discovered Allen’s body on Nov. 26, 2010 in the victim’s Bellingham Street home after receiving a 911 call. A Medical Examiner determined that the victim died of blunt force trauma to the head and strangulation.
At today’s arraignment, Assistant District Attorney Holly Broadbent told the court that on the afternoon of November 24, the victim’s live-in boyfriend was drinking in the Bellingham Square area of Chelsea when he encountered Cruzado, an acquaintance of his whom he had not seen for quite some time.
After drinking alcohol together the two men decided to go back to the Bellingham Street residence where Allen and his boyfriend lived.
Once back at the apartment the three men drank alcohol together for a short period of time. The victim’s boyfriend and the defendant later left the apartment.
When the victim’s boyfriend returned to the home, Broadbent said Allen confronted his boyfriend about bringing Cruzado to the apartment because he believed that Cruzado had stolen his cell phone earlier in the year. Allen’s boyfriend later told investigators that as a result of the argument he left the apartment and didn’t return.
Broadbent told the court that on Dec. 7, 2010, Cruzado had a phone conversation with a witness using a stolen cell phone. During that phone conversation Broadbent said the defendant admitted to being inside of a Chelsea apartment a few weeks earlier after living on the streets for several days. During that same conversation Cruzado admitted to putting a resident in the apartment in a “chokehold” during a physical altercation and leaving the man unconscious on the floor before leaving the apartment.
Unbeknownst to the defendant a witness had overheard Cruzado’s entire conversation and immediately went to the Chelsea Police station to report what he heard.
Broadbent said that when investigators interviewed Cruzado later that afternoon he admitted to being with the victim’s boyfriend on November 24 but denied ever meeting Allen or being in his apartment.
Broadbent told the court that phone records show that the defendant made a series of phone calls from Allen’s home on November 24 that could be traced back to the Cruzado.
Cruzado was arrested on April 25 in the South End by members of the Massachusetts State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section, State Police detectives assigned to D.A. Daniel Conley’s office, and Chelsea Police Department officers on an outstanding homicide warrant that was issued on April 13.
Cruzado is represented by attorney Matthew Feinberg and is expected to return to court on August 4.