Jared Remy, the son of Red Sox broadcaster Jerry Remy, has pleaded guilty in the slaying of Jennifer Martel, the mother of his 4-year-old daughter.
Remy’s admission of the killing, which took place as the girl watched and three neighbors screamed, earned him life in prison with no parole.
His plea, entered before Middlesex Superior Court Judge Kathe Tuttman, spares friends and family of Martel and Remy the anguish of a protracted trial.
It also means Remy will forgo what the judge called his possible “partial defense” of anxiety, depression, and steroid and prescription drug use.
“I would like to say, ‘Blame me for this, not my family,’” said Remy, the 35-year-old son of celebrated Boston baseball player and announcer Jerry.
Rising to speak in handcuffs for two minutes, Jared Remy called himself a “bad apple” and imagined Martel watching over their daughter from heaven.
Though he said he wanted to “take responsibility for what I have done,” he also put some of the blame on Martel and on his “love for drugs.”
Before a rapt courtroom, at what was originally billed only as a status conference, Remy read from a hand-scrawled script as friends and relatives listened.
Remy’s parents were absent; his lawyer said Remy specifically asked them not to come. He leaned back casually as he first took the stand to offer his plea.
But he answered crisply as the judge asked him nearly 100 questions during a 20-minute colloquy to ensure that Remy understood the implications of his decision.
First-degree murder pleas are rare in Massachusetts, which abolished the death penalty. Remy admitted there was ample evidence to find him guilty.
The murder came a day after Remy, charged with assaulting Martel, was released without a request by Middlesex D.A. Marian T. Ryan’s office to hold Remy.
The Boston Globe reported that Remy had terrorized five girlfriends, starting at age 17, and that courts had repeatedly let him off with little more than probation.
Jared Remy had attacked Martel on the night of August 13 of last year and was arraigned and released the next morning. Within 24 hours, she was dead.
The night of the attack, Martel and daughter Arianna sought shelter with a “neighbor friend,” McGovern said, apparently referring to Kristina Hill.
On August 14, Hill heard banging noises coming from her apartment. She dismissed them at first, but they continued, and Hill heard Arianna scream.
Hill called 911 and opened the door to see a wounded Martel crawling from Remy on the patio, while calling out: “Help me! Please, help me."
Hill ran around a row of bushes and saw Remy now “straddling Jennifer, her back to the ground, his hands on her throat.” Martel was bleeding profusely.
Hill ran through the gate and pounded on Remy’s back, screaming at him to stop, while two other neighbors also heard screams and ran to the patio.
One, Benjamin Ray, put his hands on Remy’s shoulders and tried to pull him off. Remy “swung his arm out and lunged at Mr. Ray,” who evaded his knife.
As Hill called 911 again, the neighbors saw Remy punch Martel in the face, knock her out, then “plunge the knife into Jennifer several times.”
Hill, still on the phone, watched Remy deliver the final blows, remove his blue tank top and wrap it around Martel’s face before walking back inside.
Police scrambled up the hill moments later with guns drawn. Remy, shirtless and blood-stained, emerged with his hands up. Martel was already dead.
Continue reading the gruesome story and its aftermath in the Boston Globe ...
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