Revere teen pleads guilty to fatal 2008 stabbing

REVERE – A Revere teenager’s shopping excursion to buy crack cocaine left 61-year-old Storm Mandeville dead from stab wounds, a crime the suspect admitted Thursday in order to avoid a murder trial that could have put him behind bars for life.Richard Southern, 19, pleaded guilty to manslaughter for the May 22, 2008 incident that took Mandeville’s life. As a result, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Christine McEvoy sentenced him to 15 years in state prison.Had the case gone to trial, Suffolk Assistant District Attorney John Pappas from the office’s Homicide Unit would have introduced evidence and testimony to prove that Southern went to Mandeville’s home to buy crack cocaine with the intent of shorting the victim by paying him $28 for $40 worth of the drug, according to Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.Evidence would have shown that the two used drugs together at Mandeville’s Bryant Street home and that a fight erupted when Southern passed the older man the lesser amount of rolled-up cash, Wark said.”In the course of that confrontation, the evidence would have shown Southern stabbed Mandeville multiple times, killing him. The evidence would have shown that Southern fled the residence, taking a cell phone and tossing the knife used in the homicide,” he said.Southern also pleaded guilty to an additional count of armed robbery for an unrelated incident a day earlier. He received a four-year state prison term for that offense, according to Wark.Southern would have stood trial for second-degree murder, the crime for which he was indicted, and faced life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years.Prior to sentencing, Mandeville’s brother, Mark, read impact statements prepared by members of his family. Reading from a statement submitted to the court by his mother, he called the one-time Marine Corps Reserve member “a generous and kindhearted person who would give you anything he had,” adding that “the joy went out of our lives forever” when he died.Another victim-witness statement, prepared by Mandeville’s niece, recalled daily phone calls from the victim, sometimes just to discuss what was on television that night. “I won’t ever share that little part of my life with him again,” the niece’s statement said.Speaking for himself, Mark Mandeville unveiled the emotions that overtook him in the wake of his brother’s violent death, telling the judge that he sometimes awoke from nightmares that an armed intruder was in his house and rose from bed to defend himself. He spoke of the void in his life where his brother used to be and mourned the loss of the person whom he could call for a cup of coffee or to talk about a football game.”I can’t make that call anymore,” he said. “I just hope that someday Richard Southern can do something good in the world to make up for what he’s done.”Of that last remark, the judge later said, “If that isn’t a testament to the human spirit, to something larger than all of us, I don’t know what is. I join in Mr. Mandeville’s hope.”Revere police and state troopers assigned to Conley’s office soon learned that Mandeville’s phone had been used after his death. They tracked the call to one of Southern’s friends and ultimately to the murder suspect, Wark said.At the time, Southern was identified as a suspect in Mandeville’s death. He was already in Revere police custody for an unrelated May 21 robbery at a Broadway convenience store.Had that case proceeded to trial, Assistant District Attorney Philip O’Brien was prepared to show Southern tried to buy cigarettes at the market, was refused, and then produced a knife and demanded money from the cashier. When interviewed about Mandeville’s stabbing death, Southern gave a complete and detailed confession to investigators, Wark said.Southern was represented by attorney Stephen Weymouth on the homicide charge and Andrew Stockwell-Albert on the robbery charge.