The Massachusetts Parole Board remains concerned about a former Worcester gang leader seeking release from prison after he continues to claim a murder was “accidental despite two persons being shot in their heads.”
On March 12, 1999, James Freeman III was convicted of first-degree murder for the death of Teofila Matos (Ledesma) after a jury trial in Worcester County Superior Court. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
However, in January 2024, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled in Commonwealth v. Mattis that sentencing people, ages 18 through 20 at the time of their offense, to life without the possibility of parole was unconstitutional and amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment.”…