Lynn man guilty of murdering mother, grandmother

SALEM – A city man was sentenced Monday to two consecutive life terms in prison for murdering his mother and grandmother in 2012.”If ever there was a cruel and atrocious murder, these were that,” Salem Superior Court Judge Howard Whitehead said before sentencing. “I just don’t understand why these killings took place.”Joseph Wright III, 25, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder with extreme atrocity or cruelty in the April 30, 2012 deaths of Donna Breau, 54, and Melba Trahant, 83.Breau was Wright’s mother and Trahant his grandmother.Wright had admitted to killing both women at the family’s home at 94 Sheridan St. in Lynn. The defendant testified Friday that he first killed Breau by slashing her throat with a kitchen knife then went downstairs and killed his grandmother the same way, afraid she noticed his blood-covered clothing and was calling police.Wright subsequently dumped the bodies behind Lynnhurst Elementary School in Saugus and drove in Trahant’s car to Canada, where he was arrested after trying to flee a border checkpoint. Wright admitted confessing to Canadian officials about the crimes.Defense attorney John Morris argued the killings were not premeditated, and thus not first-degree murder, because Wright was likely on drugs at the time of the killings. Morris said in his closing argument that Wright started smoking marijuana at age 10, stealing money for alcohol and marijuana by age 13, and taking “anything he could get his hands on” by 18 in order to “get away from reality.”Morris argued the evidence Wright left behind at the scene – bloody clothes, the kitchen knife used in the killings, and Wright’s surrender and confession to Canadian authorities – showed Wright had “no plan.” “Think of what Joseph Wright did,” Morris asked jurors. “He killed his mother and his grandmother, could you do that without being on some kind of drugs, being in some drug-induced state?”But Essex Assistant District Attorney Michael Patten rejected the argument that Wright was intoxicated at the time of the killings.”By the age of 23 he didn’t become a drug addict; he became a murderer of the worst kind,” Patten said.He described how Wright walked into his mother’s bedroom and “gouged her throat open.”Patten described Wright as “indifferent to the suffering” of the victims, staying in the room as each victim bled out and died. Patten then showed pictures of the deceased victims with their injuries, saying each picture “speaks for itself.”And Patten noted that Wright dumped the bodies, withdrew money from an ATM, packed a suitcase and drove all the way to Canada without getting into any accident. Canadian officials also testified they had no concerns that Wright was intoxicated when he was arrested, Patten said.”I suggest to you it was not drugs and alcohol that led to him killing his mother and grandmother,” Patten told the jury. “It was anger. It was resentment. He wasn’t happy with the way his life was going, and he blamed his mother, so he killed her. He knew he was going to be caught if his grandmother called police, so he killed her too.”Jurors deliberated about two hours before finding Wright guilty of two counts of first-degree murder with extreme cruelty or atrocity.”This trial was about the death of my mother and grandmother but what was important was their lives and that they were very loved,” Richard Breau, Breau’s son said in a victim impact statement. “I’m thankful of this verdict. It will never bring my mother and grandmother back, but I want it to be known that they were loved and they will be missed.”Whitehead imposed the maximum sentence of life without parole for each count, and he ordered the counts to be served consecutively.He said he was not sure if drugs played any role in the killing.Wright sighed and put his head in his hands as he was sentenced.Jurors declined to comment on the verdict as they left the courtroom. Morris declined additional comment.Richard Breau, however, spoke out as Wright was le