Mass. man’s silence on teen’s death keeps him locked up amid bid for freedom
After 30 years, a Massachusetts man maintains his innocence and refuses to talk about the crime that killed a teenager after a 1991 party.
Charles Dyous went in front of the Massachusetts Parole Board on March 19. During parole board hearings, it's common to start with an apology from the person charged, talk about the crime, including answering questions from each of the seven parole board members, and hear from people who both support and are against parole.
However, Dyous, now 52, refuses to talk about the crime he was charged with as a teenager.
"Mr. Dyous maintains his innocence and requested that the Board not ask any questions relating to the underlying crime," the parole board wrote in its August decision.
In November 1991, officials say 18-year-old Dyous helped kill 18-year-old Christopher Bender in Brockton.
Dyous and seven others, who were also convicted of Bender's murder, had attended a party in Brockton. At the party, the group made a plan to kill Bender and went to Bender's apartment complex at about 2:00 a.m.
Before getting out of the car, one of the men cautioned the others to avoid leaving fingerprints on the bullets, the parole board wrote. Five of the eight men involved were carrying guns.
Bender and his cousin were sitting in Bender's parked car when the men fired at least 21 shots at the driver's side of the car. Bender was shot four times and died. Bender's cousin, who was seated in the passenger's seat, was not hit by the gunfire.
Police later bullets that had been fired from a revolver, which Dyous had, according to a witnesss.
The witness also said Dyous instructed the other participants not to snitch.
Dyous was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
However, Dyous became parole eligible following the Supreme Judicial Court's decision in Commonwealth v. Mattis, where the court held that sentencing people ages 18 through 20 at the time of the offense to life without the possibility of parole is unconstitutional.
March was Dyous' first parole board hearing.
Dyous asked the parole board to review the written materials he had given them, but refused to answer any questions about the shooting.
"... evaluating Mr. Dyous' empathy and insight is significantly hampered by his refusal to answer questions surrounding the circumstances which led to Mr. Dyous' conviction," the board wrote.
Four people spoke in support of granting Dyous parole. However, two of Bender's family members and Plymouth County ADA Arne Hanston spoke against him getting parole.
One board member voted to grant parole to a Long Term Residential Program. However, other board members voted against parole.
On August 14, he was denied parole with a review in 2 years.
More on the Massachusetts Parole Board
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