BOSTON — A Massachusetts man has been sentenced to life in prison for shooting and killing a woman’s ex-husband during a domestic incident in 2024, the district attorney said Monday.
Widmaer Lapaix, 29, of North Attleboro, will have the possibility of parole after 15 years, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement.
A jury on Friday convicted Lapaix of second-degree murder for fatally shooting Maceo Martin, 41, of Boston, when Martin went to the door of his ex-wife’s apartment at 17 Hammond St. in Roxbury on Oct. 8, 2024.
Prosecutors said Lapaix was inside the apartment with Martin’s ex-wife and her children when Martin started ringing the doorbell and shouting insults outside of the apartment building shortly after 1 a.m. on Oct. 8, 2024.
While Martin’s ex-wife was in the front entryway trying to get Martin to leave, Lapaix came downstairs armed with a Kel-Tec rifle that he lawfully owned and fired one shot through the entryway window at Martin, prosecutors said.
Martin was struck in the chest and taken by ambulance to Boston Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Martin, a father of two, was remembered by his family for his love and sense of humor.
During Monday’s sentencing hearing, one of Martin’s sisters said, “To know Maceo was to know his infectious laugh.”
Another sister of the victim said, “His laugh, his smile, his silly joyful spirit - those are the memories that remain and those are the memories you can never take from us.”
Lapaix, in a brief statement to the court before he was sentenced, apologized to Martin’s family and his own family.
Hayden called Martin’s death “a tragic outcome of quick and terrible decision-making by a person holding a gun.”
“There were other ways this situation could and should have been handled, but those other ways were left unexplored. One life was ended and another dramatically altered as a result,” Hayden said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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