Crime Briefs: Malden man slays roommate with samurai sword

Witnesses told Malden Police that they heard yelling and banging coming from a Presley Street apartment before one of its bloodied occupants crawled out to the sidewalk where he would later be pronounced dead.

This week, a Middlesex Superior Court jury convicted Joshua Roush, 46, for the 2021 murder of his roommate Brian McDonald, 34. Judge Cathleen Campbell sentenced Roush to life in state prison without eligibility for parole.

Police responded to Presley Street on Aug. 15, 2021, where after they secured the crime scene around McDonald’s body they had a lengthy negotiation with Roush, according to the Middlesex DA’s office, and found blood spatter throughout the apartment and a bloody samurai sword.

Man shot, killed in downtown Plymouth following ‘minor traffic incident’

A “beautiful fall night” in downtown Plymouth was marred by what witnesses described as “three to four gunshots” in a downtown parking lot, which left one local man dead and another arrested and charged with his murder.

David Jerome, 23, of Plymouth was arrested Friday night for the shooting at around 5:45 p.m. in a Middle Street parking lot surrounded by bars and restaurants. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Plymouth District Court on Monday morning on charges of murder and various gun-related crimes, as well as reckless endangerment of a child as he had his 18-month-old son with him when the violence went down.

Jerome is accused of fatally shooting Brent Berkeley, 41, of Plymouth, following what the preliminary investigation suggests to have been the fatal end result of an altercation between the two men following a minor traffic incident. Jerome had a legal license to carry before it was suspended following his arrest, which suggests he did not have a felony record.

All of that’s according to Plymouth District Attorney Tim Cruz who this afternoon held a press conference inside the Plymouth Police Department building to describe how the “beautiful fall night … was destroyed.”

Cruz said said that Berkeley was driving a Jeep SUV and Jerome was driving a Toyota Rav4 and “were involved in a minor traffic incident and a physical altercation between the two ensued before the shooting occurred.”

Berkeley was rushed to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth where he was pronounced dead.

“I just think that we live in a world now where many people have short fuses and terrible things happen very quickly, they escalate very quickly,” Cruz said. “Look at the aftermath, look at how one family has lost somebody forever, another family will be dealing with significant issues. It affects the community.”

Chelsea Police find ‘significant quantity’ of fentanyl

The Chelsea PD, working with Everett Police detectives, announced they had found “a significant quantity of controlled substances, including cocaine and fentanyl,” a gun, and bundles of presumed drug proceed cash at 63 Marlboro St., Apartment 1, earlier this week.

The occupant, Jose Sanchez, 27, now faces charges of trafficking cocaine and illegal possession of a firearm.