Contact: Beth Stone 508-584-8120
BROCKTON – A Boston man has pleaded guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge in the 2009 fatal shooting of a Brockton man, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz has announced.
On September 27, Donta Hood, now 31, pleaded guilty to a charge of Involuntary Manslaughter, Unlawful Possession of a Firearm and Unlawful Possession of a Loaded Firearm. Today, Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan sentenced Hood to serve nine years to nine years and one day in State Prison.
On May 14, 2013, at approximately 4:09 p.m., Brockton Police received a 911 call reporting multiple gunshots and a male shot and lying in the driveway at 227 Belmont Street in Brockton. Police arrive on scene and found 49 year-old Charles “Church” Evans lying in the driveway. Mr. Evans had sustained gunshots wounds to the chest and was transported to a Brockton Hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
Witnesses at the scene identified Hood as the shooter and the murder weapon, a Smith and Wesson pistol, was found wrapped in a black sweatshirt that investigators found to belong to Hood. Three days after the shooting, members of the Massachusetts State Police Fugitive Unit, Boston Police, and Brockton Police located Hood in a Boston apartment and he was placed under arrest.
Hood, who was convicted of Possession of Cocaine with Intent to Distribute, Subsequent Offense, in August, 2009, had his 5-year State Prison sentence on that conviction vacated in the wake of actions by State Drug Lab chemist Annie Dookhan.
In June, 2016, a jury found Hood guilty of a charge of Involuntary Manslaughter, Unlawful Possession of a Firearm and Unlawful Possession of a Loaded Firearm. The jury found him not guilty of Unlawful Discharge of a Firearm within 500 feet of a Building and Armed Robbery charges.
In 2019, the Appeals Court issued a decision reversing Hood’s convictions for involuntary manslaughter and gun charges. Hood prevailed on his claim that the judge erroneously denied Hood’s motion to suppress portions of the police interrogation, in which he stated that he was holding a gun when it went off during a struggle with the victim, he immediately fled, and he disposed of his blood-stained shirt. The Court held that detectives who questioned the defendant after giving him the Miranda warnings did not honor his invocation of his right to remain silent. The Commonwealth prevailed on the rest of Hood’s claims in his appeal.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Jessica Elumba, and was investigated by Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office and Boston Police and Brockton Police.