BOSTON, Jan. 27, 2016—More than a decade after he took Julaine Jules’ life in a crime of domestic violence, the longtime suspect in her homicide pleaded guilty to murder and accepted a life sentence, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.
During a hearing this morning in Suffolk Superior Court, SHABAZZ AUGUSTINE (D.O.B. 2/19/79) waived all his appellate rights and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for luring Jules to his home, asphyxiating her, dumping her body in the Charles River, and setting fire to her car near the Malden/Revere line. Judge Jeffrey Locke imposed the mandatory sentence for that offense, life in prison with the possibility of a parole hearing after 15 years.
Had the case proceeded to trial, prosecutors would have introduced evidence and testimony to prove that Augustine and Jules, who lived in Malden at the time of her death, had a dating relationship in the summer of 2004. Augustine learned that Jules had seen another man, however, and concocted a ruse that led her to visit him on Aug. 24 of that year. Jules was last seen leaving her Fort Point workplace at about 7:00 p.m., and evidence would have shown that she drove to his Dorchester home.
The evidence would have shown that Augustine asphyxiated her, wrapped her body in plastic, and encumbered it with free weights from a weightlifting set. Using Jules’ car, he drove her body to the Cambridge side of the Charles River, dumped her in the water, and drove to the Revere/Malden border, where he set fire to the vehicle. He then took public transportation back home.
Over the course of the next several days, weeks, and months, Augustine made a number of incriminating statements to people who were close to him, including admissions that he had killed Jules, but it was not until years after her death that police and prosecutors were able to obtain them in the course of the Suffolk County Grand Jury investigation.
As a result of that critical evidence, Augustine was charged with murder in Dorchester Municipal Court on June 30, 2011. He has been held without bail since that time.
