SALEM, Mass. – June 21, 2024 – Leedell Graham, 53, of Haverhill was today sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the 2019 murder of Patsy “Pat” Schena, who was 82 at the time he was killed inside his home on Governor’s Road in Groveland, Mass. On Tuesday, a Salem Superior Court jury found Graham guilty of murder in the first degree with extreme atrocity or cruelty and breaking and entering with the intent to commit larceny over $1,200. Judge Kathleen McCarthy-Neyman presided over the case.
Assistant District Attorneys Michael J. Sheehan and Susan Dolhun led the prosecution, which spanned the tenures of Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker and former Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett. Prosecutors stated that, on June 21, 2019, Graham entered Schena’s home with the intent to burglarize it and then, upon Schena’s return home, bludgeoned Schena to death with a lamp and stabbed him with a knife. Groveland Police and Massachusetts State Police responded and investigated, leading to Graham’s arrest in June of 2019.
The prosecution presented an array of video evidence documenting that Graham was around Schena’s home at the time of the murder as well as DNA evidence implicating Graham. After the verdict, Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker cited the work of Groveland Police Chief Jeffrey Gillen and his team; Massachusetts State Police Captain John Costa, Trp. Alex Smith, and Trp. Brendan Carnes; as well as Victim Witness Advocate Cristina Garcia, along with Sheehan and Dolhun.
Graham was represented by defense attorney Jeanne Earley. Schena was a former building inspector in Groveland whose carpentry and construction work built many homes in Massachusetts and who served six years in the U.S. Army Reserves. Throughout the trial, Schena was remembered as a caring father and grandfather.
“While no one can undo this horrific murder, we hope that the verdict in this case brings Mr. Schena’s family some small measure of peace in the knowledge that justice has been served,” Tucker said.
