After a 19-day trial, Emilio Matarazzo was found guilty of first-degree murder Tuesday in connection with the slaying of his wife, Ersilia Cataldo Matarazzo, on Dec. 19, 2018, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said in a statement. The killing was apparently motivated by Ersilia Cataldo Matarazzo trying to leave her husband after a long history of verbal abuse that had escalated to physical abuse in the months prior to her murder.
“Intimate partner violence continues to be a significant public-safety and public-health issue,” Ryan said in the statement. “We know that when a victim decides to leave a relationship, that time can be incredibly dangerous and in this case, Ersilia Cataldo Matarazzo was senselessly murdered when she left the defendant and filed for divorce.”
“Since her murder, her family, neighbors, and her many friends have drawn attention to the important message that domestic violence is a community issue. They have helped to raise awareness and provided resources to aid victims and survivors,” Ryan added.
Everett Police responded to a report of a shooting on Central Avenue in that city at 8:40 a.m. on Dec. 19, 2018, and found Ersilia Cataldo Matarazzo, 50, inside her car, which was parked in her parents’ driveway. She had been repeatedly shot in the torso and was pronounced dead at the scene, the statement said.
An investigation by police revealed that Ersilia Cataldo Matarazzo had filed for divorce from her husband a month prior to the murder, and had moved into her parents’ home, the statement said. She reported being a victim of verbal abuse, and that more recently the abuse had become physical, with Emilio Matarazzo strangling and scratching her.
The night prior to the murder, Emilio Matarazzo attended a Christmas party at St. Anthony’s Parish in Everett, where Ersilia Cataldo Matarazzo worked. He was angry and demanded to see his wife, and was asked to leave the party. Emilio Matarazzo then shoved his daughter in anger outside the church, the statement said.
The next morning, just after 8:30 a.m., a witness reported hearing gunshots and saw a man, later identified as Emilio Matarazzo, approach a car parked in the driveway outside the Central Avenue home with a long gun, aim it down the window, and open fire, according to the statement. Emilio Matarazzo walked into the police station later that morning and was arrested.
During a search of a property owned by Emilio Matarazzo, investigators found the murder weapon, which matched the serial number of a gun missing from the gun safe at his home.
