High bails levied on Tuxedo12

BOSTON – Six Lynn men and a Revere man charged with second-degree murder in the fatal beating of Jose Alicea were arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on Thursday and each was ordered held on $500,000 cash bail, District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.Five co-defendants, four of them Lynn residents, were arraigned on lesser charges for beating the three surviving victims and were ordered held on lower bails.The 12 defendants are charged with attacking Alicea and three friends near the 33 Restaurant & Lounge on Stanhope Street in downtown Boston around 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 21. The group, mostly dressed in black tuxedos with red vests, went to the nightclub after attending a friend’s funeral at St. Joseph Church in Lynn on Aug. 20.Those charged with second-degree murder are Jason Benalfew, 26; Justin Cooke, 25; Jonathan Fernandez, 23; Johan Garcia, 28; Ruskyn Garcia, 25; and Michael Welch, 26, all of Lynn, and Anthony Villalobos, 21, of Revere.Those arraigned on lesser charges are Ramona Berroa, 28; Jose Castro, 22; Jorge Encarnacion, 26; and Ramon Gonzales Llavona, 38, all of Lynn, and Miguel Flaquer, 26, of Malden.Four of the five men who were arraigned on lesser charges were held on $50,000 bail; the fifth, Llavona, was ordered held on $75,000 bail for providing a false name to police and for involvement in a pending Essex County drug case.Assistant District Attorney Cory Flashner called the incident a “shocking and vicious gang assault. He said the defendants and victims didn’t know each other before the attacks, but the two groups exchanged words outside the nightclub after it had closed for the evening.”What was said is unclear, but this was clearly not a friendly conversation,” Flashner said.The defendants then charged towards Alicea and his friends, who tried to run away but were surrounded by the larger group. One of Alicea?’s friends tried to get away, but was chased and attacked by a second group of assailants.The defendants made their way back to the rented limousines they had arrived at the nightclub in, but were prevented from leaving by responding Boston Police.The seven men charged with second-degree murder were also arraigned on three separate counts of assault and battery and two separate counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (shod foot) for the non-fatal injuries to the three surviving victims.All 12 men will face trial in Suffolk Superior Court on Nov. 8, 2010; they next return to court on Dec. 17.