In The News

Prosecutor describes prior attack by Malden man on slaying victim
By John R. Ellement,
Boston Globe | March 4, 2008

MALDEN - A little more than a year ago, authorities say, a furious Lesly Cheremond pushed his hand with such force into the face of his girlfriend at the time, Norma Dorce Gilles, that she could not breathe and ended up with cuts inside her mouth.

Assistant Middlesex District Attorney Elizabeth Keeley said in court yesterday that Cheremond did the same thing to Gilles about two weeks ago, but with fatal consequences for the 41-year-old owner of a hair salon.

"She was smothered," Keeley said as Cheremond was arraigned on a charge of first-degree murder in the killing of his former girlfriend. "There was pressure placed over her nose and her mouth. She died of asphyxiation."

Cheremond, a native of Haiti who has been living in the United States while working as an electrician and a music producer, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Malden District Court and was ordered held without bail.
In court, his lawyer, James Budreau, questioned the strength of the prosecution case, saying they have only circumstantial evidence linking his client to Gilles's death. "There is no forensic evidence," he said.

Gilles's death was the sixth domestic violence slaying in the state this year, said Toni Troop, a spokeswoman for Jane Doe Inc., which tracks domestic violence crimes. Two killers took their own lives, she said.

Troop said the rate of domestic homicide is raising fear that Massachusetts will experience a repeat of the violence of 2007, when 42 men, women, and children were slain and 13 perpetrators killed themselves. The total of 55 deaths was the highest domestic violence death rate since 1992, she said. "It's a crisis," she said. "It's alarming. It's unacceptable."

After Cheremond was arraigned, Gilles's brother, Jules Dorce, said he had tried to help his sister since February 2007.
"That's what I was trying to prevent," said Dorce, who said he tried to persuade his sister to move away from Cheremond and the Malden store. "I was too late."

According to Keeley and court records, Cheremond first attacked Gilles on Feb. 4, 2007, in their Malden apartment, where he threatened to kill her with a knife if she told police. Gilles threw Cheremond out, obtained a restraining order and moved to Lynn for her own safety, relatives have said.

But she and Cheremond had adjacent businesses on Salem Street, where both continued to work after their violent breakup, bringing them into contact with each other routinely.

Keeley said the jealous rage that fueled Cheremond's 2007 attack exploded again in February when he encountered her new boyfriend.

" 'You know what happens to people who mess around with families,' " Keeley quoted Cheremond as telling both Gilles and her boyfriend. " 'They get killed.' "

Keeley said that Gilles was last seen at her salon Feb. 13 and that her body was found stuffed in plastic bags in the trunk of her car last week. Police found Cheremond in possession of a key to the car and learned that he had given varying explanations for Gilles's disappearance.

Some 20 relatives of Gilles were in the courtroom, determined to show Cheremond their devotion to the slain woman.
"She was adorable," said Pierre Joas, 55, a cousin to the Dorce family. "She was always smiling."

Joas said Gilles's relatives want to see more attention given to preventing domestic violence. "We don't want a second to happen," he said outside the courthouse. "You cannot decide to just take someone's life like that. We want justice."