Man convicted for murdering two people just standing in a crowd at Mildred Hailey Apartments in 2018

A Suffolk Superior Court jury today found Wilvin Guity-Beckels of Dorchester guilty of first-degree murder for the deaths of Christopher Joyce, 23, and Clayborn Blair, 58, in the Mildred Hailey apartment complex on May 4, 2018, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Guity-Beckels was also convicted for injuries suffered by a four-year-old hit by one of the bullets Guity-Beckels sprayed into the group of about 15 people.

He will be formally sentenced July 12, but first-degree murder convictions carry a mandatory sentence of life without parole.

Joyce was just days away from becoming the first person in his family to graduate college.

The DA's office provided this account:

Assistant District Attorney John Verner presented evidence and testimony at trial to prove that, shortly before 9:45 p.m. on May 4, 2018, Guity-Beckels exited the rear passenger’s seat of a vehicle stopped in the area of Chestnut Avenue and walked into the Mildred C. Hailey Apartments complex. There, he opened fire on a group of approximately 15 people standing in an outdoor park. Joyce and Blair, who were among the individuals in the park, were fatally struck in the spray of gunfire. A bullet grazed the ear of a then-4-year-old boy.

Among the evidence collected was footage from more than a dozen surveillance cameras capturing the assailant’s movements before, during, and after the shooting. The footage depicts the shooter wearing distinctively patterned sneakers, which were recovered during the execution of a search warrant at Guity-Beckels’ home.

Acting DA Kevin Hayden said in a statement:

This individual opened fire on a group of more than a dozen people, without regard for who his bullets struck or the harm they inflicted. These verdicts can never provide what the victims’ loved ones want and truly deserve - to have their loved ones back in their arms - but they help ensure that the individual who took their lives will not have the opportunity to inflict harm in the community again.