Published: 04/26/2007 Woman jailed for masterminding Lime St. assault By Dan Atkinson Staff Writer
NEWBURYPORT - More than four years ago, three men fractured Lime Street resident Richard Erosa's skull, looted his apartment and assaulted his dog. Yesterday, Erosa's ex-girlfriend admitted to organizing the attack, pleading guilty at Lawrence Superior Court to armed robbery, a felony. Katie O'Brien, 25, of Hampton, N.H., was sentenced to seven to 10 years in state prison for armed robbery and five years' probation for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. The three men whom O'Brien enlisted to carry out the assault on Erosa were sentenced in 2006 to seven to nine years in prison for armed robbery. O'Brien and Erosa were in a dating relationship, and she frequently asked him for money. As Erosa became more reluctant to abide, she became more hostile if he didn't give money to her. Several months after the attack, Erosa himself was arrested and charged with planning to rob a bank in Peabody. In 2004, Erosa died at age 34 of a drug overdose. Although O'Brien originally pleaded not guilty to the charges, Newburyport Inspector Brian Brunault said she had been a suspect from the start. "It was always (Erosa's) assumption that she set the thing up, and that put us in that direction," Brunault said. "But we needed a whole lot of hard work to bring that forward." Three men - Hampton residents Gerald Jewell, 25, and Edgar Smith, 38, and Woburn resident David Miranda, 25 - were indicted for the robbery in 2004. But Erosa died the next month, and the district attorney left office at the same time. The case was closed. New Assistant District Attorney Murat Erkan soon called Brunault, and they resurrected the case, Brunault said. "The pieces were there, we just had to put the puzzle together," Brunault said. "We knew the players, we knew the motive. ... We had to get the weakest link." That link turned out to be Miranda, Brunault said. Following leads after the assault, Brunault went to Miranda's house. "I showed him one picture of the victim and how he had all these staples in his head, and (Miranda) immediately coughed up the story," Brunault said. "He said he was living with the ordeal every night and wanted to do the right thing." After talking with Miranda, Brunault and Erkan determined that O'Brien had been demanding money from and threatening Erosa. On Oct. 30, 2002, O'Brien drove the three men to Erosa's Lime Street apartment, and the men got Erosa to open the door by saying they had hit his car, according to reports.
Once inside, Miranda smashed Erosa's head with a metal object placed in a sock, tearing off part of his scalp and fracturing his skull, according to reports. Miranda also hit Erosa's rottweiler, Oynx, in the head, severely injuring it. The three men stole cash, lottery tickets, a check and a DVD player and fled to a motel in New Hampshire to divide the loot, according to reports. Erosa was treated at Anna Jaques and Brigham and Women's Hospital. Family members said that Erosa's behavior changed after the attack, saying he became remote and rarely left his home. Although the case took four years to complete, Brunault said he was happy with the results. "I think we came out with a win-win situation," he said. "She was the hottest link (at the start of the case). ... It all came around full circle."
Posted by: Bdbmarine
Hey thanks for the post. I just became a new member and saw the article regarding the Lime Street attack.
Brian Brunault
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