SJC Overturns Brighton Minister's Conviction for Fatal Fire 40 Years Ago

BOSTON, MA --- The state's highest court has overturned the murder and arson convictions of a Brighton Baptist minister, a one-time drug addict from Lowell who spent 32 years behind bars for a horrific 1982 arson fire that killed eight people in Lowell.

In its ruling today, the state Supreme Judicial Court agreed with Middlesex Superior Court Judge Kathe Tuttman's 2014 decision to overturn the conviction and order a new trial for 60-year-old Victor Rosario

Rosario's appeals attorneys , Lisa Kavanaugh and Andrea Petersen, took on Rosario's case and produced compelling evidence that advances in fire science and irregularities in Victor Rosario's confession while going through alcohol withdrawal showed Rosario was entitled to a new trial in the interest of justice.

With the SJC's decision to overturn Rosario's conviction and order a new trial, the Middlesex District Attorney's Office must now decide if it wants to retry the case. Rosario has been free on $25,000 cash bail and without issues since Tuttman's decision.

While in prison, Rosario became an ordained Baptist minister and married his wife, Beverly Rosario, an education specialist with the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The couple live in Brighton, where his wife owns a home.

Rosario was serving life in prison for setting a five-alarm fire at 32-36 Decatur St. in Lowell during the early-morning hours of March 5, 1982.

Lowell Police allege Rosario and two brothers, Edgardo and Felix Garcia, both now dead, tossed Molotov cocktails into different areas of the building as payback for a bad drug deal involving one of the building's residents, who was killed in the fire. Eight people died, including five children. Rosario was identified by a witness at the scene and later confessed to police.

"The loss of eight lives in the fire in 1982 was unquestionably tragic, and without a doubt must have weighed
and must continue to weigh heavily on the victims' families as well as the community. Nevertheless, under our Constitution and system of laws, every criminal defendant is entitled to a fair trial where, to the extent possible, justice is done,'' the SJC wrote.

''The DTs diagnosis, the information from the interpreter, and the data on coercive interrogation tactics all call into question whether the defendant's statements were made voluntarily. The new fire science provides an alternate theory regarding the start and spread of the fire. These factors taken
together could have influenced the jury's verdict,'' the justices wrote.

The SJC added, "Although the evidence presented in support of the defendant's motion for a new trial does not necessarily mean that he is innocent, the judge (Tuttman) concluded, after what was clearly a painstaking review of the trial record, that justice was not done. We conclude that in reaching this determination, the judge did not abuse her discretion. As a result, we affirm her order granting a new trial.''

Photo of Victor Rosario at a 2016 court hearing.