EVERETT, Mass. (TND) — The cold case of a 21-year-old woman shot to death nearly a decade ago has been solved, according to police and the district attorney, who announced criminal charges.
They did not announce an arrest since Henry “J.R.” Del-Rio has been in trouble since the shooting outside a nightclub in Massachusetts on Aug. 13, 2015.
Authorities said Del-Rio “randomly fired a gun over and over in a crowded parking lot” and “Ashlee Berryman, a completely innocent victim, was caught in a hail of gunfire and lost her life.”
Berryman was there to support her boyfriend, who performed.
Also there, authorities said, was “Del-Rio, with a group of his acquaintances, several of whom were, like Del-Rio, allegedly associated with the Chelsea-based East Side Money Gang.”
Somebody he knew got into an argument with “two men, who had not been at the concert,” and “Del-Rio drew a .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol and fired nine times at the two men.“Del-Rio continued firing as the men turned and ran, striking one in his feet and ankles.“One of the bullets that missed the targets hit Ashlee Berryman in the back, fatally wounding her.”A wooden municipal sign, a window at a pharmacy across the street, and the roof of a passing car were also hit.
Then, the D.A. said, “Compounding that tragedy, over the years there was an intentional effort on the part of some witnesses to withhold the truth and to conceal the identity of the shooter.”Investigators said they learned Del-Rio “told people that he had fired the shot that killed Ashlee Berryman.
“Those associates who knew what had happened agreed to say nothing,” and the murder weapon has never been recovered.
A grand jury indicted Del-Rio on charges of first-degree murder, assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon-firearm, attempt to commit assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon-firearm, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and carrying a firearm, subsequent offense.
Del-Rio, now 27, was indicted on federal firearms and drug charges in 2016 after an investigation into a network of street gangs.
The feds said he pleaded guilty to three conspiracy charges — to conduct enterprise affairs through racketeering, to distribute cocaine and cocaine base, and to distribute heroin — and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
In 2018, he was sentenced to five years in prison and four years of supervised release.
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