Thursday, March 7, 2013
A jury of 12 men and women deliberated for a little more than seven hours before reaching a guilty verdict.
Nathaniel Fujita stood stoically with his head hung down as the jury foreman read the verdict Wednesday morning. "Guilty" of first-degree murder. Behind the defendant, his mother, Beth Fujita, began to weep. But tears flowed from the left side of the courtroom as well, as the parents of Lauren Astley, the 18-year-old woman Fujita murdered in July 2011, learned that he would be held accountable for taking their daughter's life. As the verdict was read, Prosecutor Lisa McGovern turned to Astley's parents and met their eyes. In the state of Massachusetts, Fujita now faces an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The foreman then read the verdicts for the other three charges Fujita faced: Judge Peter Lauriat…
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Defense attorney William Sullivan and Prosecutor Lisa McGovern will make their opening statements in the case of a Wayland man accused of killing Lauren Astley in 2011.
Opening statements will take place today at Middlesex Superior Court in the trial of a 20-year-old Wayland man accused of killing 18-year-old Lauren Astley, also of Wayland, in July 2011. Nathaniel Fujita was 18 years old when Astley’s body, strangled and with multiple stab wounds, was found in a Wayland marsh. He has been charged with first-degree murder, two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and assault and battery. According to Massachusetts law, Fujita faces life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder. Fujita’s lawyer William Sullivan, however, said this is a case where the issue of “criminal responsibility” could be a primary question, though he would not officially say whether he planned to …
Monday, February 11, 2013
Nathaniel Fujita will face trial beginning today in the 2011 murder of Lauren Astley.
A courtroom at Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn will today see a host of potential jurors for the trial of Nathaniel Fujita, the man accused of brutally killing his ex-girlfriend and fellow Wayland High School Class of 2011 graduate Lauren Astley. Fujita's lawyer, William Sullivan, has preemptively filed the paperwork for a possible change of venue should the defense and prosecution be unable to seat a panel of jurors given the substantial press this case receives since Astley's murder on July 3, 2011. Patch will be covering the trial, much as we have as the legal process has unfolded throughout the past 19 months since Fujita's arrest. Below is a brief recap of the process that has brought the case to this point. - Wayland Man Arrest …
