The feds say a convicted sex trafficker from Mattapan tried to get a woman he exposed himself to detained by immigration enforcement so she couldn’t testify against him.
Mark Pinnock, 32, of Mattapan, pleaded guilty to one count of witness intimidation on Wednesday in federal court in Boston. He could be sentenced up to 20 years in prison for the charge. His sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 5.
“Let the cleaning lady know” she would be arrested by ICE if she were to go to court, Pinnock wrote to the security officer of a Brockton condo building last November, days before she was set to testify against him.
The message was sent over an encrypted platform on a phone handed to the guard by a co-conspirator, who the feds say Pinnock directed to the location to intimidate the witness on his behalf.
Pinnock was convicted to eight years in prison for sex trafficking in 2014 and had only recently been let out on probation for that when he got a job as an Amazon delivery driver. While delivering a package to the Brockton building in July 2022, he allegedly exposed his genitalia to the woman threatened in the above quotation.
To make good on the threat, according to the document filed in the federal complaint, Pinnock allegedly placed three phone calls to ICE to have the woman detained and said things like he had heard she was affiliated with a gang.
Suspect in Waltham fatal shooting arrested in Florida
Courtesy / Middlesex District Attorney’s office
Josh Pierre, 21, was arrested in Florida last month on a charge of the murder of Shelson Jules, 22, in Waltham in May. (Courtesy / Middlesex District Attorney’s office)
The suspected shooter of a 22-year-old Waltham man has been located and arrested in Florida.
Josh Pierre, 21, of Waltham, is scheduled to be arraigned Friday on charges of murder and possession of a firearm in the death of Shelson Jules in the early morning of May 22.
“Over the course of the investigation, Pierre allegedly took numerous steps to evade capture before he was ultimately located in Miramar, Florida,” and arrested on Sept. 22, the Middlesex District Attorney’s office wrote in a Wednesday statement.
Investigators fingered Pierre as the shooter in July, according to the DA’s office. They say Pierre traveled with others to Waltham to meet with Jules for undisclosed reasons. The meeting became bloody at around 1:30 a.m. when Pierre allegedly shot Jules twice from behind before fleeing the scene.
Jules’ family described him in his obituary as “many things: a loving son and brother, a devoted partner, a generous friend, a caring uncle, an aspiring cat dad, a silly dancer,” as well as “spontaneous, gentle, generous, dedicated, kind, loving, patient, playful, sweet, and silly.”
Jules’ family came to America from Haiti when he was 11 years old, according to the obituary, in pursuit of “a fresh start and aspired to live the American Dream.” He graduated high school and spent a few years at UMass Boston before taking a break to support his family in their goal of buying a new home.
Mansfield police successfully deescalate violent threat
Mansfield Police successfully resolved a stressful situation in which a local man allegedly armed with a gun was holed up in an area hotel and threatening to harm himself.
The man’s mother called the police a little before 4 p.m. Tuesday to report that her son “was under the influence and armed” at an address matching that of the local Fairfield Inn and Suites, 50 Reservoir St., and “threatening to harm himself or law enforcement if anyone tried to intervene,” according to the Mansfield Police Department.
MPD called in help from the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council, which has a Crisis Negotiators Team and a mental health clinician, the agency said. Negotiators worked for four hours until the male in question “agreed to accept help and was peacefully transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.”