A Boston man, 23-year-old Moises Pimentel, was charged Tuesday morning with the July 4 murder of Cambridge Public Works employee Xavier Bautista. He pled not guilty in Cambridge District Court this morning.
Pimentel is the third person to be charged in connection with the crime, along with Giovani Arroyo, who was arraigned last Thursday, and Rayquon Brown, an accused “lookout” who was charged in July. All three men face charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy, and weapons-related offenses for planning and conducting the crime. Pimentel is also charged with evidence tampering.
Assistant District Attorney Caroline Evans said the accused conspirators were in part identified due to video footage connecting a white Dodge Ram with the crime, which was being rented by one of the three men. Data from Pimentel’s cell phone, as well as video footage and text messages recovered via iCloud, also led to Pimentel’s arrest.
Evans said the Commonwealth has also obtained video evidence of two of the alleged conspirators disposing of evidence in a dumpster — hence the evidence tampering charge against Pimentel.
Bautista’s autopsy has not yet been released to the public, but Evans provided details, saying Bautista had been pronounced dead on the scene and had suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
Pimentel was represented by a court-appointed attorney, George Murphy. Pimentel’s next hearing is scheduled for October 22. He will be held without bail.
First-degree murder charges will be elevated to the Middlesex Superior Court. Evidence against the three accused men will be heard by a grand jury, which will vote on what charges each man should be indicted on before the case goes to trial.
Death ignited debate
The death of Bautista reinvigorated the debate over ShotSpotter, an acoustic surveillance technology intended to detect the sound of gunfire.
Cambridge City Council narrowly voted in June to invoke its right, under the city’s Surveillance Technology Ordinance, to ban the Cambridge Police Department from using the technology. This came after months of advocates and community members raising concerns about the sensors’ capability of recording conversations and the use of the data.
Just weeks after ShotSpotter was uninstalled across the city, Bautista was killed. There was no 9-1-1 call until about an hour after Bautista was shot, raising questions over whether the technology could have led to a faster emergency response that might have saved him.
Last month, councillors voted to temporarily re-instate the technology while a community assembly, the first-of-its-kind in Cambridge, debates its long-term use. Mailers for 15,000 households across the city were sent this month, inviting them to sign up for a lottery to join the assembly. Of those who register, 40 will be selected.
The assembly will meet for four Saturdays this fall and receive $1,000 for their participation. Households who received the mailer have until September 27 to sign up.
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