WOBURN — A Malden man was sentenced to 18 years to life in prison Friday for the shooting death of a Salem man nearly four years ago.
Jeury Batista was a popular 23-year-old Salem High School graduate who was attending North Shore Community College to study business when, back in 2019, he was approached about buying some marijuana.
But when Batista and his girlfriend, a high school acquaintance of Yahia Mastouri and Josue Espada, arrived in Malden on the night of March 2, he was instead shot to death — killed, Batista’s mother told a judge, “over something you can buy in a store and a measly $2,000.”
Last month, following a three-week trial, Mastouri, 22, was found guilty of second-degree murder and other charges in Batista’s death. Espada, 22, was convicted of being an accessory. Both were also found guilty of conspiracy to violate the drug laws.
“I am mindful that nothing I do here this afternoon can restore Jeury Batista’s life to him,” Middlesex Superior Court Judge David Deakin told the family and friends of Batista, on one side of the courtroom, and of Mastouri, on the other. “Nothing I do can ease the grief of those who lost a family member and a friend.”
At the same time, Deakin also said he had to take into account the fact that Mastouri, still a teenager when he committed the crime, has begun to recognize and pursue a path toward rehabilitation, taking college classes while in jail awaiting trial and seeming to acknowledge the “wrongfulness of his conduct and the debt he owes to society.”
“Mr. Mastouri stands before me bearing the heavy, heavy weight of guilt,” Deakin said.
Under the law, the judge had the option of setting parole eligibility at anywhere from 15 to 25 years. He settled on 18. He imposed concurrent terms of one year for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and three to five years for carrying a gun without a license, and mandatory consecutive 2½ year jail term for carrying a loaded gun.
Batista’s family had asked for the longest possible term for Mastouri.
His mother, Carmen Batista, in a victim-impact statement read by prosecutor Joseph Gentile, called Mastouri “pure evil” and recalled how he seemed to show no remorse for the pain and loss he caused.
Jeury Batista, she wrote, “will always be my beautiful little boy.” She recalled him as a baby boy and then as a teenager with many friends, “always the life of the party.”
He was, his mother wrote, clever, interesting and kind, someone who “always wanted the best for the people in his life.”
Gentile had sought longer terms on some of the lesser charges as well as a period of probation that would follow any release from prison.
Mastouri’s lawyers, Joseph Simons and Douglas Ryan, asked for the earliest possible parole date of 15 years, saying he was “still in his formative years,” and has been “repentant,” accepting his conviction as “a legal fact.”
Simons and Ryan are still pursuing a motion seeking to reduce the verdict to manslaughter, and during the trial mounted a defense that sought to portray Mastouri as the victim and Batista as the aggressor — even suggesting to jurors at the start of the trial that it was Batista who brought the gun that night.
A hearing on their request is expected to take place sometime next month.
Mastouri also spoke at his sentencing, telling Deakin that he is sorry for what happened that night — and acknowledging that he did carry a gun that night, an item that he now says “created a false sense of security” in a world of “drug dealers and convicts.”
“I truly never meant to shoot Jeury,” he said. “I know nothing I say can restore a life.”
He said that while in jail awaiting trial he has realized, after years of paying no attention to school, that he values education, and has been taking part in an online degree program through Northeastern University. He called jail “a much needed intervention,” and said he’s considering writing a book about his experiences.
“Mr. and Mrs. Batista, I’m sorry for your loss,” he told Batista’s parents. “I never meant to kill your son.”
Geovanni Batista, the father of the victim, began to yell, but was shushed by court officers.
Espada’s sentencing was postponed until next month after a sentencing memorandum, a “white paper” on teen brain development and other materials sent by his attorney, Jeanne Earley did not make it to the judge’s chambers before sentencing.