Published January 19, 2011

The last of three men charged in connection with the Mattapan murders of September 2010 has pleaded not guilty to nine charges, including four counts of first-degree murder.

Edward Washington, 35, was arrested in December for the murders of four people, including a two-year-old boy and his mother, on Woolson Street. Prosecutors say Washington was responsible for the murders but that he was not the mastermind.

WBUR’s Bianca Vazquez Toness, reporting from Suffolk Superior Court, quotes Assistant District Attorney Edmond Zabin:

“This defendant and Dwayne Moore marched the people who were inside and marched them up the street to Woolson Street and somewhere around the corner of Woolson and Wildwood Street those individuals were all shot,” Zabin said.

Dwayne Moore was arrested in late November, almost two months after the murders, and booked with four counts of murder and other charges. Edward Washington’s cousin, Kimani Washington, was arrested in October and charged on drugs and weapons counts.

When November arrived, and almost two months had passed since with no murder charges, it felt like the homicides would never be solved. Police reassured an angry public it was a “very active investigation.”

The victims were Amani Smith, 2; his mother, Eyanna Flonory, 21; her boyfriend, Simba Martin, 21; and Levaughn Washum-Garrison, 22. The lone survivor is 32-year-old Marcus Hurd.