True Crime New England · True Crime New England

Case Profiles #87

March 15, 2026·23 min·1 clip

A high-beam dispute on a Brockton road escalated into gunfire that shattered all four car windows.

1. True Crime New England’s “Case Profiles #87” presents the murders of Jeff T. Cherry and John Lima in Massachusetts. 2. Liz Gorey and Katie Kane host the mini-episode, with each researching one case and reacting to the other’s account in real time. 3. The episode asks how limited media and law-enforcement attention affect cases involving people of color in New England. 4. Jeff T. Cherry moved from Haiti to Boston with his mother and two younger siblings in 1999, when he was 13. 5. Cherry worked at Burger King at 16 after his father lost his job and later earned an associate’s degree at Bunker Hill Community College. 6. Cherry joined the MBTA cleaning train cars, advanced to commuter-rail conductor, and hoped to become a locomotive engineer. 7. On November 26, 2015, four men were shot outside Who’s On First on Yawkey Way near Fenway Park, and Cherry was the only fatality. 8. Boston Commissioner William B. Evans said the other three victims were known to police while Cherry had nothing to do with the apparent target of the shooting. 9. The episode says Cherry had planned a Dominican Republic trip and birthday concert plans before he was killed one day before turning 30. 10. Dominique Carpenter Grady was arraigned in 2016 on firearm and attempted-assault charges after surveillance allegedly showed him placing a gun under a parked car. 11. John Lima was driving his sister’s Nissan Altima in Brockton on May 21, 2007, with his friend Jarrell Archer in the car. 12. A Chevrolet Malibu followed Lima with high beams on, and gunfire shattered all four windows after Lima briefly braked. 13. Witness Nicholas Mello heard several bangs, saw a car hit a curb, and later identified a Chevrolet Malibu with scrape marks. 14. A confidential informant told police that an acquaintance admitted to Lima’s murder and specified a .22-caliber handgun. 15. Paolo Tavares was arrested on June 1, 2007, and was initially convicted of Lima’s murder and firearm charges. 16. Tavares received life without parole before his 2019 appeal led to the convictions being vacated and a new trial being ordered. 17. The hosts repeatedly connect the cases to random gun violence, uncertain motives, and the families’ incomplete access to justice. 18. The format combines researched case profiles, source citations, spontaneous host reactions, and requests for listener-submitted cases. 19. Best for listeners seeking underreported New England homicide cases. 20. Listeners avoiding unresolved violence and legal uncertainty may skip it.

As heard by us

Jephte Cherry's path from cleaning subway cars toward conductor work gives this profile its steady human center.

This Case Profiles mini-episode keeps True Crime New England's advocacy mission in the foreground, favoring a clear, human-centered profile over mystery-box suspense.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You meet Jephte Cherry at the edge of a milestone: a day before his 30th birthday, after working his way from cleaning subway cars to becoming a train conductor.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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