LYNN — A 28-year-old Dorchester man was arraigned in Lynn District Court on a murder charge Wednesday in connection with the beating death of a Lynn man this past March.
Tyrell Mitchell was arrested on a warrant by local and State Police in Quincy Wednesday morning and transported to the Lynn courthouse where he was ordered held without bail following a late afternoon arraignment.
Mitchell is accused of killing Nelson Nunez, 47, who was found dead at the corner of Essex and Baldwin streets at approximately 6 a.m. on March 12.
Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Tsingos said during the hearing that an investigation has shown the homicide occurred the night before his body was found, on March 11.
Tsingos said Nunez was forced into a pickup truck, which had been waiting in the parking lot of his apartment building at 700 Washington St. and that was later seen pulling into a parking lot at the corner of Essex and Baldwin streets, where his body was discovered the next morning.
She said two men entered his apartment shortly before 9 p.m. and one was seen leaving with a safe over his shoulder, which had been reported missing from the unit.
Tsingos said authorities were first alerted to a robbery at Nunez’s apartment by his son, who said his father was missing from his home and was not answering his phone. She said the apartment was ransacked, but the only thing missing was a safe that contained monetary items and other belongings.
The next morning, police received a call for an unresponsive man at the corner of Essex and Baldwin, who was found with multiple puncture wounds. The man was declared dead at the scene and later identified as Nunez, the victim of the previous night’s robbery investigation, Tsingos said.
Through surveillance footage from surrounding businesses and an investigation into the license plate and registration of the pickup truck allegedly involved in the incident, authorities identified Mitchell as the sole renter of the vehicle during February and March, Tsingos said.
She said the vehicle, which contained traces of human blood that matched the victim, was picked up at a car rental company in Pennsylvania in May and transported to the Lynn Police Station.
Attorney James E. McCall, who is representing Mitchell, said the Commonwealth’s case against his client is “extremely thin,” and one that is based on “circumstantial evidence.”
While McCall concedes that his client may have some connection to the pickup truck believed to have been used in the incident, he said there is no direct connection to his participation in the homicide.
“It’s all guesswork and speculation at this time,” said McCall.
McCall asked Judge William Martin to consider setting his client’s bail at an amount between $5,000 to $10,000 with the conditions that he wear a GPS bracelet and remain on house arrest. He also asked that his client’s bail not be revoked for a case that is pending in Dorchester District Court.
At the time of the incident, Mitchell was on probation for two other violent offenses and had been released on bail, according to Tsingos.
Mitchell’s mother and girlfriend attended his arraignment on Wednesday, but both declined comment. No members of the victim’s family were present.
Mitchell is scheduled to return to court on Aug. 27 for a probable cause hearing.
The matter remains under investigation by the Essex District Attorney’s office, Lynn Police and the Essex State Police Detective Unit.
