The Testimony of Jeanine Teixeira

I think the hardest part of the whole trial was listening to the testimony of Luckas and Pooda's mother Jeanine. Jeanine has initially cooperated with he DA, and had made statements in a Grand Jury concerning Cleo's death.

Jeanine is a 4o year old women who appears to be Portuguese. She was thick, but not fat. The most distinctive thing about Jeanine was her chubby baby face a streak of bright right through her dark brown hair.

Flashner began questioning Jeanine, starting with questions about the day of the murder. At first the questioning had a certain amount of humor.

Flashner: I would like to address your attention to the morning of April 29, 2008. When you woke up that morning, what did you do?

Jeanine: I spoke to Cleo and went to check on the boys.

Flashner: Did you do anything before checking on the boys?

Jeanine: *sighs audibly into the mic* I smoked at a blunt and had sex.

The look on everyones face was priceless. Even the judge put a hand over his face to suppress a giggle.

As the questioning went on however, Jeanine began to cry. Flashner slowly had her walk through the day of Shadide's death. It became apparent, that no matter what he had done to her, at one point Jeanine had loved Cleo.

At one point Jeanine was asked about walking into the boys room.

Flashner: When you walked into the boys room, what did you see?

Jeanine: Luckas was on his futon, and Pooda... Pooda was in the closet.

As she said this she looked to her youngest boy sitting at the defendants table and the two laughed as they looked into each others eyes.

As the questioning proceeded, Jeanine became more and more incoherent and uncooperative. She denied seeing a female police officer, even though there was one. She said she had take 2 oz. of cocaine from the apartment, even though it seemed very unlikely that she had been allowed inside and she denied remembering a number of things she said at the police station, despite there being video of the interview.

The testimony with Flashner's questioning went on all day.

On the next day, she was questioned first by Murphy. Murphy had been working with her since the day of the crime. Murphy was a family friend, via Jeanine's mother, who was experienced in such matters. Meticulously, he began poking holes in the story Flashner had gotten out of her.

The most impactful cross examination came from Weymouth's questioning however. Rather than try to muddy the situation as more confusing like Murphy had done, Weymouth focused on his client, the younger boy.

Slowly, a story emerged.

Aasim Smith was born in 1990 to Jeanine Teixeira and Aasim Smith Sr. Tat that time they lived on the cape. For the first hear of Aasim's life, his family was a tight family unit, then, when he was one his mother ran away. For the nest 15 years Aasim was raised by his father, with occasional stays at his grandmothers and aunts. For the most part though, Aasim's father bore the weight alone of keeping his son on the right track and in school.

Jeanine never paid child support. She rarely visited. When she regained custody in 2007, she spent Christmas eve with Cleo at a crack house in East Boston, and not with her son.

The jury was almost reduced to tears, and Jeanine was bordering on hysterical.

Opening Statements

After Jury selection the trail began with opening statements from the respective sides. The judge gave a brief description of the English tradition behind the procedure and we were off and running.

First, the prosecution presented their case. The prosecution was represented by Assistant AG Flashner. AAG Flashner was a man in his mid 40s who seemed to take pride in being a bit of an arrogant prick. He looked vaguely like Will Arnett and he had a personality that suggested to me the kid in high school who is panic stricken to the point of tears when he realizes that his classmates are using marijuana.

Flashner had also watched way too many fucking episodes of Law and Order. Rather than simply talking about the killing Flashner found it necessary to create a complex narrative about "Choices and Consequences". I think his reasoning being that the jury was too dumb, to ignorant or too inattentive to draw any conclusions on their own. He went on for about 20 minutes telling us that while the situation was sad, it was ultimately the choice if Aasim and Eugene to enter the apartment.

Next to present was Eugene's attorney, Counselor Murphy. Murphy was an ornery old blue blood Bostonian with a think accent and rosatia to max. Like a less dignified Ted Kennedy his opening statement was 15 minutes of hot blooded yelling. I honestly cannot remember anything about what he said except that it was delivered with a passion and outrage that made it hard not to laugh.

Finally Aasim's lawyer presented. Aasim's lawyer, counselor Weymouth was by far the most collected. He acted with a reverence and respect for his client, the jury and the law and made everyone sit up and pay attention. Weymouth countered Flashner's long winded fable about choices and consequences with a much simpler narrative. He told us briefly and with compassion about his client, who was 15 at the time of Cleo's killing. About a boy who had never known his mother.

We were all taken aback by what we had just seen, but it did not prepare us at all for hearing from Jeanine Teixeira, the boys mother and the deceased's girlfriend.

April 29th, 2008

Eugene Teixeira

On the morning of April 29th, 2008 Jeanine Teixeira awoke in her Chelsea apartment the the sound of her boyfriend Shadeed "Cleo" Wiggins yelling into the phone. Cleo was upset because the African women he had entered into green card marriage with was not paying him the $200 a month he had been promised.

Jeanine had been together with Cleo for 6 months. Jeanine had recently turned 4o and dating the 25 year old Cleo made her feel young again. When Cleo got mad in the morning Jeanine knew exactly what to do. She methodically rolled a fat blunt from a hollowed out Philly and summoned Cleo back to bed.

At approximately 9AM Jeanine left the bedroom in a warm haze to see if her boys had made it out of the house. Her oldest, Eugene "Luckas" Teixeira (21) was still in bed. From the closet in the boys room she could hear rustling and giggling. She opened the closet to find her youngest son Aasim "Pooda" Smith (15) who was skipping school again to hang out with his older brother.

For most of their lives the boys had shuttled between their fathers, their aunt and their two loving grandmothers. Their mother had a long history of instability, and now, for the first time they were all living under the same roof.

Jeanine yelled at the boys for not getting out of the house, and at Aasim especially for not going to school. Her anger passed quickly though, and soon she returned to her room with Cleo. She told Cleo that the boys had not left the house and he flew into a rage.

Since moving in together in February Cleo had become violent towards Jeanine, leaving her with bite marks, scars and black eyes. On this morning Cleo was already in a bad mood and he demanded that Jeanine's freeloading kids get out of the house.

Feeling like she had lost control of her kids, and afraid of Cleo, Jeanine told her sons to get out of the house. She told them to back their things and go immediately. She would call their grandmother to pick them up in the afternoon.

The boys, knowing what 6' 265 lbs. Cleo could do when he was mad packed a few of their things, collected the XBOX from the living room and left the house.

As the boys were leaving, the houses 5th occupant Chris Burnett was coming home. Chris depended on dialysis three times a week to stay alive, and upon returning from treatment he went into his room and promptly fell asleep.

Jeanine called her mother as promised and made arrangements for the boys to be picked up after work from in front of the house in Chelsea. Shortly after making this call, Cleo realized that the XBOX was not in the house and flew into a fresh rage. He ransacked the boys room leaving a futon on its side and all of the drawers torn out of the dressers.

Jeanine then called Eugene to return immediately with the XBOX and to let him know he would be picked up by his grandmother in the afternoon.

At 3:40PM Luckas and Pooda returned to the front of the house and begain yelling that they were coming to get their stuff. Their mother both by yelling and via cell phone told them to wait outside until their grandmother arrived.

Luckas and Pooda were angry. Luckas was getting ready to leave for Los Vegas in a day to work construction with his grandfather for $34 an hour. Pooda was angry because for the first time in his life he finally had a mother, and every day he watched her be abused and sometimes beaten by Cleo.

For reasons that remain unclear at 3:42PM the boys decided the time at come to act. They ran to the back stairs of the house running up loudly enough to gain the attention of the neighbors. Their mother heard them running up and locked the back door, placing herself in front of it. Cleo entered the room baseball bat and perhaps a knife in hand.

The boys began kicking at the door with enough force to tear the frame out of the wall and eventually break out the center panel. As the panel crumpled in, Jeanine called 911. What happened next is unclear. There is only garbled audio.

Male Voice: "Luckas, Chill"

Luckas: "That's our mother in there"

Jeanine: screaming

Male Voice: "Stop, chill the fuck out"

crashing sounds

male voices yelling

Jeanine: Screams continuous

sound of redial button being pressed

sounds of running

911 Dispatcher: "Ma'am you have to calm down and tell me what's happening"

Jeanine: "My sons just came in and tried to beat up my boyfriend"

sounds of running, inaudible voices

Jeanine: "Luckas, Pooda - you mother fuckers are going to jail"

What is known is that inside the pile of noise heard on the 911 call the following events take place:

-Luckas and Pooda enter

-Cleo swings a bat and connects with Luckas hard enough to break his hand and leave a visible Spaulding logo on his shoulder

-Chris attempts to intervene

-Cleo ends up with multiple stab wounds including four to the chest, one through the face and one through the back.

-The boys exit through the back door depositing an aluminum bat on the grass as they run.

-Jeanine exits the house with the phone just as or before the stabbing begins.

As Jeanine stood on the front porch of the house her two boys ran past yelling at both to stop. Young Aasim stopped at the end of the street, while Eugene continued running to a safe place. The police arrived seconds later and took Aasim into custody after a half hearted attempt to flee.

The police found Cleo struggling for breath at the bottom of the front stairs. EMTs worked for 20 minutes to revive him, but he ultimately succumbed after losing a 1/2 liter of blood into his torso.

Eugene spoke to his grandmother at 4:24PM when she called him to tell him Cleo was dead. Under the advice of a trusted family lawyer Eugene surrendered to police in Cambridge where his grandmother had ties to the police, and he could have an attorney present at the time of the arrest.