Suspect arraigned in 2010 Chelsea homicide

Mario Cruzado was charged with one count of murder on Tuesday, April 26 for the Nov. 26, 2010 homicide of Frederick Allen, according to Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley's office. Allen died of blunt force trauma to the head. Cruzado was arrested by members of the Massachusetts State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section, State Police detectives assigned to DA Conley's office, and Chelsea Police Department officers in Boston's South End.

Assistant District Attorney Holly Broadbent during the suspect's arraignment told the court that Allen's boyfriend had been drinking in Chelsea's Bellingham Square neighborhood when he encountered Cruzado, a former acquaintance of his. The two men met up with the victim at the Bellingham Street apartment Allen shared with his boyfriend. The three men drank together and then, according to Broadbent, "the victim's boyfriend escorted the defendant back to the Bellingham Square area and left him there."

Upon returning to the apartment, Allen and his boyfriend argued about Cruzado's visit. Allen's boyfriend told investigators that he then left the apartment and didn't return. His accounts of events were corroborated by a witness, who told investigators that he spoke with the victim by phone on the evening of Nov. 24. During that conversation, Broadbent said, Allen told the witness that he had argued with his boyfriend about bringing a stranger -- allegedly the defendant -- to the apartment, and that his boyfriend had left the apartment. Broadbent said that Allen also told the witness that, "at some point the stranger had returned back to the apartment alone after the victim's boyfriend had left." According to Broadbent, Allen "expressed to the witness by phone that he was worried about the stranger who had come back to the apartment."

Investigators learned of a phone conversation Cruzado had had within weeks of the murder, during which "the defendant admitted to being present inside of a Chelsea apartment and placing a man who owned the apartment in a chokehold," Broadbent said. During the phone conversation Cruzado admitted "he left the man unconscious on the floor of the apartment before he left -- not knowing if he had left him alive or dead," Broadbent continued.

Allen's body was discovered in his home on Nov. 26, 2010.

Cruzado is represented by attorney Matthew Feinberg and is expected to return to court on May 24.