Massachusetts man who beheaded classmate at age 15 gets decades to life in prison
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A Massachusetts man was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years after beheading a classmate in a fit of jealousy over a girl in 2016.
Mathew Borges, 18, was found guilty of first-degree murder in May of 16-year-old Manuel Villoria-Paulino, whose headless body was found nearly a month after the brutal killing by a man walking his dog near the Merrimack River.
Borges was 15 at the time, attending Lawrence High School where he and Villoria-Paulino were both sophomores. Borger told police he last saw his friend on November 18, 2016, when the two smoked marijuana together.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Mathew Borges, 15, attending his arraignment in Lawrence District Court in Lawrence, Mass, in December 2016. (Paul Bilodeau/The Eagle-Tribune via AP, Pool, File)
MASSACHUSETTS TEENS COULD GET LIFE IN PRISON AFTER DECAPITATING FORMER CLASSMATE
Two weeks later, on Dec. 1, Villoria-Paulino's head turned up near his body along the river. Police said Borges had stabbed Villoria-Paulino to death and decapitated him so he would not be recognizable.
Manuel Villoria-Paulino, 16, was stabbed and beheaded by classmate Mathew Borges. His body was found in Dec. 2016 by a man walking his dog.
The Essex County District Attorney deemed Borges' crime among the worst the office has ever prosecuted.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Borges was tried as an adult and given the maximum sentence under the law but was granted the possibility of parole because state law stipulated it's unconstitutional to sentence a teenager to life without parole. He would be 45 years old when the opportunity for parole arises.
The victim’s mother, Katiuska Paulino, begged the court before sentencing to impose the maximum sentence on Borges.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“There are no more dreams for the dreamer, the brother, the writer and the poet that was Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino… He has been the soul of this family since he was born,” she said. “We are the living dead after he was brutally ripped from our side.”
“Understanding that there is no number of years that can restore this family’s loss, it is my hope that they can now find some peace, ” Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said.