Contacto: Beth Stone 508-584-8120
NATICK – Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz testified against the release of a man who murdered both of his parents and 11 year-old sister yesterday before the state Parole Board.
On October 9, 1993, then 15 year-old Gerard McCra, now known as Kuluwm Asar, argued with both of his parents. McCra possessed a firearm and later that same day, shot his mother, Merle McCra, 36, in the head inside their family home. McCra then went outside and executed his father, Gerard McCra, Jr., 34, and sister, Melanie, shooting them in the back of their heads inside the family car as he sat in the backseat.
En 1995, un jurado del condado de Plymouth declaró a McCra culpable de los asesinatos y fue condenado a tres cadenas perpetuas concurrentes sin posibilidad de libertad condicional. El 3 de junio de 1998, el Tribunal Judicial Supremo confirmó sus condenas. En 2013, el SJC emitió una decisión en Diatchenko contra el Fiscal del Distrito de Suffolk y otros, en la que el Tribunal determinó que las disposiciones legales que ordenan la cadena perpetua sin posibilidad de libertad condicional no eran válidas en su aplicación a los menores condenados por asesinato en primer grado. El Tribunal decidió además que los menores debían ser sometidos a una audiencia de libertad condicional. Dado que McCra tenía 15 años en el momento de los asesinatos, podía optar a la libertad condicional.
On May 30, 2019, McCra, first appeared before the state Parole Board for a review hearing where DA Cruz spoke in opposition to his parole. In March, 2020, the state Parole Board unanimously denied McCra’s parole. In May, 2024, McCra once again appeared before the board, and they unanimously denied his parole, and set two years to the next hearing date, which was held yesterday.
“McCra savagely executed his entire family back in 1993,” DA Cruz said. “This man has had more than three decades to consider the magnitude and wrongfulness of his heinous actions. He has also had that time to take advantage of the programming our prison system has to offer and better himself, but he has chosen not to do so. McCra was a danger in 1993, and in my opinion, he is still a danger today. This man should never be returned to the community of Rochester, the County of Plymouth, or to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and I urge the board to deny parole to McCra.”
MAY 21, 2026