A Massachusetts man is being held without bail and will spend 20 days being observed at a hospital after he was charged with bludgeoning his female neighbor to death.
Dinis Moreira, 69, pleaded not guilty Friday to one count of murder of Valerie Oakhem, 58, a mother and grandmother, according to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office.
Police received a call from a relative of Moreira’s just after midnight Friday, and said he arrived at his Bridgewater, Massachusetts, home to find a woman on the kitchen floor with severe trauma to her head and face.
“The victim was trembling and gasping for air and appeared to be attempting to roll over,” prosecutors said, according to WFXT-TV.
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Oakhem was transported to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Investigators believe Oakhem’s attack was targeted, not random.
The DA’s office said Moreira and Oakhem were friends, and he invited her over for a drink the night she was killed.
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“Who expects their family member to murdered with a hammer?” Gail Teed, a friend of Oakhem’s told WFXT. “There was no need. Absolutely no need. This woman helped him all the time since his wife passed away. All the time. She didn’t deserve this, nothing. She didn’t deserve none of this.”
Oakhem’s ex-husband reportedly shouted at Moreira in the courtroom Friday: “I’ll see you in hell, Dinis!”
Neighbor Peter Schneider told the TV station he couldn’t imagine Moreira killing anyone.
“Nice guy, he’d wave to you,” Schneider said. “Come over and gave us some bread a couple of weeks ago. Nothing wrong with the guy.”
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Moreira’s is scheduled to be in court June 14.
