Male charged with murder in deadly strike-and-run crash in Belmont that included alleged racial slur

“The victim’s loss of life was the result of getting struck and operate about by the defendant’s car or truck,” she informed Cambridge District Courtroom Choose Ina Howard-Hogan.

Tapia, who was nicely acknowledged in Tekken gaming circles in Bigger Boston and the father of a few youngsters, experienced massive accidents, Allain mentioned, which include two damaged legs, a collapsed lung, “air in the sac about his heart” and “obvious deformities” to the orbital region of his head and left forearm and left leg.

Upland Street inhabitants rushed to assistance Tapia, who instructed Belmont police officers his pain amount was 10 out of 10 and that he was fighting for each individual breath he was having difficulties to get.

“I can’t breathe,” he told police officers. “I’m heading to die.”

Allain said Tapia was rushed to Massachusetts Normal Clinic, the place clinical personnel stated that on arrival he did not have a “palpable pulse” or blood strain. He was pronounced useless at the hospital.

Investigators spoke with Upland Highway people and recovered a movie from a resident’s surveillance digital camera that captured some of the dialogue between the two adult men above each and every other’s driving routines on Upland Street, wherever Kapsalis was dwelling with his girlfriend. Tapia pulled about and bought out of his sedan all through the verbal argument, she reported, citing witness statements.

The argument “appeared to be de-escalating and settling down when witnesses listened to the defendant curse at the victim and the defendant then termed him the n-word,” Allain mentioned.

Tapia, she explained, responded by asking Kapsalis: “What did you say to me? Do you want to say that yet again?”

At that level, Kapsalis allegedly drove the pickup instantly into Tapia, who fell underneath the car just after staying struck. “Witnesses said the defendant accelerated in the truck and drove it straight to the victim,” Allain said.

Kapsalis drove off, but later surrendered to police at his girlfriend’s behest, in accordance to Allain and court information. Immediately after becoming go through his Miranda rights, Kapsalis allegedly advised police that he feared for his everyday living, saying that Tapia had threatened to shoot him as Tapia was returning to his auto.

His girlfriend also claimed Tapia threatened to shoot Kapsalis, the prosecutor claimed.

Nevertheless, the prosecutor noted, not just one other witness interviewed by law enforcement backed up the allegation by Kapsalis and his girlfriend. No gun was identified on Tapia’s man or woman or in his car or truck, she mentioned.

“The defendant and his girlfriend have been the only men and women who explained to law enforcement about the allegation that the victim threatened the use of a gun,” Allain explained.

A not responsible plea was entered on Kapsalis’s behalf to the charge of murder and a second new charge of leaving the scene after creating a demise. Kapsalis continues to be billed with civil legal rights violations producing critical harm, and assault and battery with a harmful weapon, prosecutors reported.

Kapsalis was purchased held without bail. Protection legal professional John H. Cunha Jr. questioned for a cash bail, a ask for that was denied by the choose.

He is thanks back in courtroom March 1.

Tapia, who was heading to the household he shared with his girlfriend on a nearby Belmont road, was mourned by hundreds of people for the duration of a candlelight vigil last week and on-line, where good friends have set up a GoFundMe account that has collected $140,000 from 2,100 donors. The primary purpose was $10,000.

Tapia’s very long-time girlfriend Courtney Morton was amid all those listening to the telehearing for Kapsalis Monday. By way of a friend, she declined remark.

John R. Ellement can be arrived at at [email protected]. Comply with him on Twitter @JREbosglobe.