S.C. jail let suspect in slays walk early Officials say Hub native worked sentence down

S.C. jail let suspect in slays walk early
Officials say Hub native worked sentence down

By Laura Crimaldi | Thursday, October 14, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage

Photo by Mark Garfinkel

The lone suspect in the Mattapan massacre still would have been in prison this past summer if he had not gotten more than seven months knocked off a six-year crack cocaine sentence in South Carolina, officials said.

Kimani Washington, 34, of Dorchester shaved 216 days off his sentence by working 40 hours weekly as a janitor in prison, said Josh Gelinas, a spokesman for the South Carolina Department of Correction. If he was not given time off, Washington would have been released in August.

Appearing before an emotional crowd of relatives of the Mattapan homicide victims yesterday, Washington pleaded not guilty to weapons, crack cocaine and pot charges in Dorchester District Court in connection with the Sept. 28 massacre that killed four people, including a toddler. No one has been charged with murder.

One of the two firearms seized from Washington’s mother’s apartment has been linked to the crime by ballistics evidence, prosecutors said.

Washington was ordered held on $500,000 bail on the charges, including a career criminal firearms charge, which applies to suspects with three or more convictions for crimes involving drugs or violence.

On Aug. 4, 2004, Washington was arrested in a Colonial Inn hotel room in Florence, S.C., after officers found him with pot and crack cocaine, a police report said. He was given a concurrent sentence of 93 days in jail on the pot charge and six years for possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, Gelinas said.

Washington was entitled to earn two days off his prison sentence for every 40 hours he worked because the crack cocaine conviction is a non-violent offense, Gelinas said. He added Washington was also given credit for the time he spent in a county lockup before his conviction.

Washington was paroled on April 27, 2006, from a drug addiction unit at a maximum security prison, Gelinas said. He moved to North Carolina, where authorities took over his parole supervision, said Peter O’Boyle, a spokesman for the S.C. Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services.

Washington was arrested in March 2007 in Forsyth, N.C., on charges of resisting arrest, theft of cable TV service and driving without a license, O’Boyle said. His parole was revoked and he was sent back to prison in South Carolina until his release date on Feb. 29, 2008, O’Boyle and Gelinas said.

Yesterday, defense attorney John Salsberg declined to make a bail argument on the grounds he had not received police recordings of Washington’s statements and other evidence.

However, he said, Washington’s “family is very supportive.’’

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