Life behind bars for man charged with 1988 Southie murder

A 61-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday in connection with the fatal strangulation of a 21-year-old woman in 1988 in South Boston.

Carl Richard Vega, a convicted sex offender who also uses the alias Ricardo Mazzarino, was found guilty of first-degree murder last month, 36 years after Judy Chamberlain was found by a maintenance worker in a basement drain of the Fargo Building on D Street, next to a large sump pump, officials said.

According to investigators, biological evidence collected during Chamberlain’s autopsy indicated she had been sexually abused by her killer. A DNA sample collected during the initial examination was submitted to a federal indexing system, which compares samples from unknown assailants to the DNA profiles of known perpetrators, prosecutors have said.

Investigators initially identified Vega as a suspect in 2011, when federal databases matched the suspected killer’s DNA to Vega. But prosecutors at the time felt they didn’t have enough evidence to meet their burden of proof.

Vega was previously required to provide a DNA sample following his 1990 conviction on three counts of rape in connection with a 1987 attack on a 72-year-old woman in Revere. Vega was sentenced to a lengthy prison term for those crimes.

In recent years, a reinvestigation into Chamberlain’s murder has been successful, as investigators gathered additional evidence needed to present the case to a Suffolk County grand jury, prosecutors said. That evidence included witness statements linking Vega to the Fargo Building, where he had worked as a flooring subcontractor. The grand jury returned an indictment in 2021, charging Vega with Chamberlain’s murder.

Superior Court Judge Josh Wall sentenced Vega to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Tuesday, the Suffolk District Attorney’s office said. Before they were sentenced, Chamberlain’s loved ones gave victim impact statements.

Her brother, John Olson, said Chamberlain’s murder was a nightmare for the family, adding that the last words he said to his brother were, “I love you.”

“Today this family gets closure and Judy gets justice,” he said, according to statements from the prosecution.

Chamberlain’s sister, Jill Burr, said she missed her and loved her very much.

Chamberlain’s friend, Tina Cattaneo, said of Vega, “I hope someday he suffers like he made Judy suffer.”

Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement that “everyone present in the courtroom today could feel the anguish and despair expressed by Judy’s loved ones after so many years of questions with no answers.”

“Today they finally got the chance to see someone held accountable for the loss of the person they so clearly love and miss,” he said.

Danny McDonald can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @Danny__McDonald.