Man convicted after wrong Boston apartment murder

Victor Arrington, 40, was convicted at a retrial of killing Richard Long, 37, during a 2015 Dorchester home invasion after prosecutors said the men entered the wrong apartment. A jury found Arrington guilty of first-degree murder, home invasion, armed assault

When jurors filed back into the Suffolk Superior Court courtroom for the retrial’s final decision, one thing was already clear: what started as a planned assault and robbery had ended with a life taken in the wrong home.

On Thursday. a Suffolk Superior Court jury found Victor Arrington. 40. guilty of first-degree murder in the 2015 Dorchester home invasion killing of Richard Long. 37. prosecutors said. The jury also found Arrington guilty of home invasion. armed assault with intent to murder. unlawful possession of a firearm. and two counts of kidnapping. Arrington is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday.

Under Massachusetts law, a first-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors said Arrington and two accomplices planned to assault and rob a man who lived on Harvard Street in Dorchester on March 31, 2015. Instead, the intruders forced their way into Long’s apartment, prosecutors said, even though Long had no connection to the intended target.

According to prosecutors, the men bound Long and his fiancée with electrical cords. “Realizing that they had entered the wrong home, the men decided to kill Long and his fiancée to cover their tracks,” Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said.

The case turned deadly fast. Prosecutors said the men stabbed Long with a knife and shot him in the head. They also shot Long’s fiancée in the head. Prosecutors said they poured bleach on their bodies before setting fire to the kitchen and fleeing. Long died at the scene.

Long’s fiancée, prosecutors said, regained consciousness and rescued the couple’s infant son from the apartment before escaping to a neighbor’s home for help.

Arrington was arrested in July 2016.

The retrial followed a first trial that ended in a mistrial in May 2024 after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

A second defendant, James Boyd, 33, remains charged with home invasion, assault with a dangerous weapon, and two counts of kidnapping. The district attorney’s office said Boyd is expected to change his plea on July 1.

A third alleged accomplice was identified during the investigation but was never charged because he was killed in an unrelated homicide in April 2015, Hayden’s office said.

The retrial also drew attention for prosecutors’ use of location information stored in the Frequent Location History feature on Arrington’s iPhone. Following an extensive evidentiary hearing. the court allowed prosecutors to present the digital evidence to jurors over the defense’s objection. the district attorney’s office said.

“This team effort helped secure a just verdict in an extraordinarily harrowing case. notable not only for its shocking violence against completely innocent victims but also for the precedent it set in the use of advanced digital evidence. ” Hayden said. “But most important of all is the opportunity for Richard Long’s family and loved ones to see someone held accountable for this terrible crime.”.

Victor Arrington Richard Long Dorchester home invasion Suffolk Superior Court first-degree murder conviction Kevin Hayden Frequent Location History iPhone digital evidence