BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com/AP) - Prosecutors accuse a Boston man of fatally stabbing a 24-year-old woman last summer and then using her money to buy scratch tickets and a cell phone.
Officials shared the new details during 29-year-old Edwin Alemany's arraignment in Superior Court Wednesday. Alemany pleaded not guilty to 20 charges, including first-degree murder, and was ordered held without bail. The 29-year-old was indicted last month in the July death of Amy Lord, a Wilbraham native living in South Boston.
Alemany also was indicted in three non-fatal attacks on young women, two the same week Lord was killed. The alleged victim of a third attack almost a year earlier grabbed his wallet and told police. Officials have demoted a detective they said failed to pursue it.
Prosecutors say Lord was beaten, forced to drive to five ATMs and withdraw money, then to drive to a city park where she was stabbed to death. Investigators in court Wednesday alleged Alemany torched Lord's Jeep and used the money to make several purchases in the area where her car was found.
Alemany previously pleaded not guilty in district court in Lord's killing.
Prosecutors also say Alemany went out with friends in the hours after Lord's body was found. Prosecutor John Pappas said he ate and drank with friends on that July night.
Pappas said in court the attacks "were all blitz style physical assaults where the victims were overwhelmed by violence."
Alemany's lawyer, Jeffrey Denner, says his client is suffering from severe mental illness, and should not be held criminally responsible. He's arguing an insanity defense. The judge set a tentative trial date for next December. Alemany is being held without bail at Bridgewater State Hospital.