Arnold Gabbidon...arrested for assault with intent to murder, assault and battery, stalking

After a family member’s testimony, Arnold Gabbidon, then 24 years old, was sentenced to nine years in prison
for shooting Boston Globe photoengraver, John Fitzgerald.  

That family member had testified that Gabbidon fired his sawed-off .45- caliber rifle toward the Southeast Expressway in Milton, merely to “try it out. Fitzgerald was struck in the chest and paralyzed for seven years before dying in 1987. In April 1990, four years a federal immigration judge refused to deport Gabbidon. According to his son, deporting Gabbidon was Fitzgerald’s final wish.

On January 14, 1994, Gabbidon’s violent nature struck again when he kicked through the door of his child’s mother, choked her, stabbed her in the back of the head, and slashed her throat as she slept. He said he “wanted to kill her and even if she did live, no one would want her.”  The woman was left to die, but survived the ordeal. Gabbidon had previously served time in prison for stalking her.

Gabbidon made his escape, which eventually brought him back to Jamaica, his birth country. He remained tucked away on this island paradise until a family member alerted U.S. Marshals that he was living with relatives. It seems as if he could run away from the law, but he could not outrun his own family.  

Eight thousand days later, an older, gray haired Gabbidon stood inside the Middlesex Superior Court. He was arraigned on charges stemming from the incident in 1994: assault with intent to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, stalking, and breaking and entering, including assault with intent to murder.

He pleaded not guilty and was held without bail. He was also ordered to not have contact with the child, who is now 23 years old, or his mother, the victim.