The friends and families of 54-year-old Gary Melanson and 30-year-old Douglas Leon Clarke have waited over a decade for justice to be served in their loved one's killings. On Wednesday, the man prosecutors say is responsible faced charges in their deaths in Middlesex County Superior Court for the first time.
That man is 38-year-old former Lowell resident Kevin Lino, who is already serving a life sentence in Massachusetts for a Suffolk County murder, as well as a 40-year sentence for a killing in Montana, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said previously.
Earlier this month, a grand jury indicted Lino on first-degree murder charges in Melanson's and Clarke's deaths. A judge held him without bail during his arraignment Wednesday morning, the district attorney's office said in a press release.
"We recognize the pain and uncertainty endured by the families and friends of Mr. Melanson and Mr. Clarke, who have long awaited answers about what happened to their loved ones," Ryan said in the release. "It is our hope that today's arraignments will bring them a measure of peace."
Authorities began investigating Melanson's death on the afternoon of Nov. 29, 2010, the district attorney's office said. Lowell police responded to an anonymous call about a body under the Rogers Street Bridge and found him sprawled over a collapsed tent.
Melanson was found to have blunt impact injuries to his head, torso and extremities, including fractured ribs, a collapsed lung and a fractured left arm, the district attorney's office said. Despite this, the state Chief Medical Examiner's Office ruled at the time that his manner of death was undetermined.
In 2018, Massachusetts State Police learned that Lino might've been involved in Melanson's death while working an unrelated case involving Lino, the district attorney's office said. The Middlesex County District Attorney's Cold Case Unit moved forward with the new information and pieced together the details of Melanson's killing.
At the time, Lino -- then 23 years old -- and Melanson were both unhoused and living near the Rogers Street Bridge, the district attorney's office said. Prosecutors say Lino attacked Melanson after Lino warned him to stop lighting fires to warm himself, fearing this would attract the attention of authorities.
Melanson ignored Lino's request, and Lino responded by rushing at the much smaller and older man with a metal bat, the district attorney's office said. Lino is accused of repeatedly hitting Melanson with the bat until he died.
"Mr. Lino then finished that attack by urinating on Mr. Melanson," District Attorney Ryan said previously.
Cambridge police found Clarke's body on Aug. 2, 2012, after responding to a report of an unconscious man near 975 Memorial Drive, the district attorney's office said. At the time, police knew Clarke to be an unhoused person living in the Harvard Square area.
The toxicology report on Clarke's blood revealed that he had substantial concentrations of morphine, codeine, ethanol and gabapentin in his system when he died, the district attorney's office said. As there was no evidence of foul play, authorities believed he'd fatally overdosed as a result of chronic substance abuse and recorded his death as accidental.
But six years later, investigators uncovered evidence that Lino may have been involved in Clarke's death, the district attorney's office said. At the time, both men were part of a group of unhoused people who gathered by the Harvard Square MBTA station.
Lino -- then 25 years old -- "decided to take it upon himself to drive out heroin-using members of the group," the district attorney's office said. He assaulted many of them and personally confronted Clarke, but Clarke refused to leave.
Lino then "resolved to punish him for his insolence" by poisoning Clarke, the district attorney's office said. Lino is accused of causing Clarke's death by offering him a quantity of heroin Lino knew would lead to an overdose.
"[Lino] is alleged to repeatedly and deliberately victimize some of the most vulnerable members of our communities -- unhoused individuals," District Attorney Ryan said in the release. "The actions alleged in these cases were not only violent and cruel, but inhumane."