News

Dorchester man to get life for 1992 South End murder

Thursday Dec 14, 2017

Courtesy Adam Gaffin, www.universalhub.com

On Monday, a Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted James Witkowski of first-degree murder for the rape and suffocation of 21-year-old Lena Bruce in her South End apartment on July 12, 1992, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

The conviction means a mandatory sentence of life without parole.

Witkowski, 45, had evaded arrest until 2014, when he violated the terms of an assault-and-battery conviction, and was required to supply a DNA sample, which matched evidence found at the murder scene.

Prosecutors say Witkowski did not know Bruce when he attacked her. Bruce, 21, a Philadelphia native, had graduated with honors with a degree in electrical engineering from Tufts University just two months before her death.