Martin Jiminez of South Boston pleaded guilty today to bludgeoning Melissa Hardy to death in June, 2013, and was sentenced to life in prison, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.
Because he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, Jiminez will be eligible for parole in 15 years.
According to prosecutors, Hardy had broken up with Jiminez, who had beaten her, the month before, but went to his room in an E. 4 St. rooming house to get some of her stuff. According to the DA's office:
Family members were not able to contact Hardy after that time and reported her missing to law enforcement. Boston Police officers on June 26 attempted to enter Jiminez’s apartment to perform a wellbeing check but found the door padlocked from the outside; they instead entered through a window to find Hardy dead from obvious trauma.
As her body lay behind the padlocked door, a Boston Police officer was doing an inspection of the rooming house, which had gone without a city license since 2011.
After he fled, Jiminez had been nabbed by State Police in Concord on an OUI charge - while driving a car belonging to one of Hardy's relatives. Troopers found him so drunk they took him to Emerson Hospital for treatment:
While hospitalized, Jiminez made statements to members of his family that he had killed Hardy with a bat and a hammer; a bat recovered at the scene of Hardy’s murder was found to have DNA matching that of the victim, as was the shirt Jiminez was wearing at the time of his arrest.
Kerry Kolditz was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Jiminez was represented by Michael Doolin.