BOSTON — More than 13 years after a fatal shooting outside a Boston apartment building sent David Yarde to prison for murder, a growing group of advocates, forensic experts and attorneys are urging Massachusetts courts to take another look at the case, arguing that surveillance footage, expert analysis and post-conviction evidence raise serious questions about whether the right person was convicted.
At the center of the effort is Kaycee Connelly, co-founder of Moxxy Forensic Investigations, a nonprofit organization that typically works with law enforcement agencies and medical examiners to identify unidentified remains and investigate violent crimes through forensic genetic genealogy.
Connelly said she had no prior connection to Yarde before being introduced to his case several months ago.
“Somebody had brought David’s case to me seven or eight months ago and upon reviewing it, there’s nothing that Moxie can do because there’s not DNA evidence to prove his innocence,” Connelly said.
“But as a human being, 30 seconds into seeing the information that I had been given, I couldn’t just walk away from him,” she added. “So here we are and I have completely just covered myself up into every inch of trying to figure out how to get this man out of prison.”
Yarde is serving a life sentence for the October 2012 shooting death of DeAndre Russ outside 1050 Tremont Street in Boston.
Speaking from prison during an interview conducted with Connelly, Yarde described the events leading up to the shooting.
“It was Halloween 2012, Halloween time on the 28th of October,” Yarde said. “We ended up going to the party at 1050 Tremont. We got to the party.”
According to Yarde, tensions developed during the gathering after Russ allegedly confronted attendees and repeatedly questioned where people were from.
“He started to become aggressive inside the party,” Yarde said. “And somebody saw him grab a gun, cock it, put it on his waist, and he started with his questions again.”
Yarde said he decided to leave because he feared violence.
“I just wanted to get away from the whole situation because the fact that he’s there checking everybody on some tough shit, one of them decided to respond in a negative way. I didn’t want to be a part of it,” he said.
According to both Yarde and Connelly, Russ followed a group of partygoers outside, where a confrontation occurred near a concrete pillar.
Yarde recalled attempting to defuse the situation.
“I turned around, put my hands up,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Yo, bro, chill. What you doing? You bugging. Chill, chill, chill, chill, chill. You’re bugging, chill.’”
Moments later, shots were fired.
“That’s when shots went off and we all scampered and ran off,” Yarde said.
The prosecution argued at trial that Yarde was the shooter. However, advocates now point to surveillance footage and subsequent forensic reviews as evidence that another individual may have been responsible.
“The crazy thing about it, it’s all caught on CBTV,” Connelly said.
According to Connelly, surveillance footage introduced at trial captured the movements of those involved immediately before the shooting.
“There is a 911 caller and an eyewitness that is not associated with David and his original group,” she said. “So both of those witnesses described a shooter, which the person they described was not David.”
Connelly further argued that the physical evidence and video timeline do not support the prosecution’s theory.
“DeAndre Russ is shot in the left side of his head,” she said. “David is standing straightforward. So even if David had a weapon, he couldn’t have shot him in the left side of the head, ever. The science doesn’t allow that.”
She added that experts retained after Yarde’s conviction reached similar conclusions.
“A reconstruction expert has redone all of that since the conviction,” Connelly said. “And it is scientifically impossible for David to get from where he was standing at the top of the barrier down to the bottom of the barrier and around the barrier to be on the same side of the barrier as DeAndre Rose is to shoot him.”
One forensic review included in the post-conviction record analyzed synchronized surveillance footage from multiple cameras positioned around the scene.
According to that report, the fatal shot occurred within an approximately one-second window after one camera panned away from the confrontation. The report concluded that another individual visible in the footage appeared to be in a better position than Yarde to fire the fatal shot and stated that Yarde’s location at the time was inconsistent with the trajectory analysis. Supporting forensic reviews likewise questioned whether Yarde could have physically fired the shot attributed to him.
A February 2026 affidavit filed by Massachusetts attorney Gordon Spencer went even further.
“Based on my review of the case file, the surveillance evidence, the forensic reports, and the post-conviction developments, it is my professional opinion that Mr. Yarde is innocent of the crime for which he was convicted,” Spencer wrote.
“Without giving too much hyperbole, I don’t believe the issue is even close,” he added.
Spencer further stated that multiple forensic analyses reached the same conclusion.
“The scientifically accurate timeline of approximately 0.83 seconds renders it physically impossible for Mr. Yarde to have fired the fatal shot,” the affidavit states.
Connelly argues that prosecutors have failed to seriously examine those findings.
“They actually denied it,” she said. “I mean, when he filed it, motion was denied.”
A central component of the advocates’ argument involves another individual present that night, John Collins.
Connelly alleges that Collins was a confidential informant whose relationship with authorities was never adequately scrutinized.
“We now know that he is an informant,” she said. “He was the individual who fired the weapon that night.”
Yarde likewise contends that evidence pointing toward Collins was overlooked.
“They found shell casings inside his room and his drawer that connected him connected to the actual shell casings located from the crime scene,” Yarde said.
At the time of his arrest, Yarde said he initially assumed investigators would eventually determine he was not responsible.
“The whole time they’re going to eventually find out I wasn’t a suspect and release me,” he said.
Instead, he said, he gradually came to believe that key evidence was ignored.
“Now I came out with the proof that I have four different expert reports that prove my innocence to a scientific certainty of impossibility independently investigated and an affidavit that shows why I was the only person that was charged and why John Collins wasn’t charged,” Yarde said.
Connelly argues that the implications extend beyond Yarde’s conviction.
“The DA’s office now, in order for them to take accountability, they have to admit that they have blood on their hands,” she said.
She pointed to a later homicide involving Collins.
“Ultimately Joshua Briggs should still be alive if the correct person was held accountable for the homicide of DeAndre Russ,” Connelly said.
“Not only did they lose him, but the man who did kill him was never held accountable.”
Yarde echoed that claim.
“The man who did kill him was never held accountable, was allowed to walk the streets and kill someone else,” he said.
Advocates also point to concerns raised by former prosecutor Robert Costantino, who later submitted a Rule 3.8 affidavit regarding the case.
According to Connelly, Costantino was assigned to review potentially problematic convictions and identified Yarde’s case as one warranting further examination.
“In 2019, Bobby Constantino, he worked in the district attorney’s office,” Connelly said. “He was appointed to a review board and their job was to go through amount of cases and determine if there was any cases that could potentially have issues.”
“The only case that he brought forth was David Yarde’s,” she added.
According to Connelly, Costantino concluded that the forensic evidence required review.
“Seven years later, it’s never been reviewed,” she said.
Yarde said he was stunned when Costantino was barred from representing him during recent appellate proceedings.
“Three minutes before the oral arguments start, they struck Bobby Constantino and did not allow him to represent David,” Connelly said.
“David does not know this. So he gets on camera and the three judge panel says, ‘You will be pro se. Your lawyer has been struck.’”
Despite that setback, Yarde proceeded with the hearing himself.
“He did it anyway,” Connelly said.
Beyond the conviction itself, advocates have also raised concerns about Yarde’s treatment within the Massachusetts prison system.
Earlier this year, Yarde was transferred from a maximum-security facility to a medium-security prison.
Initially, supporters viewed the move as progress.
“We’re like, ‘Hey, our efforts are working,’” Connelly recalled.
But within days, she said, Yarde was attacked by another incarcerated person affiliated with the same gang as Russ.
“Less than 48 hours after David got on his floor, he was brutally attacked and damn near killed by a Mission Hill gang member,” Connelly said.
She said the assault left Yarde requiring surgical reconstruction and a metal plate in his face.
According to Connelly, prison officials were aware of the potential security risks.
“That was a known security risk,” she said.
Yarde was eventually placed in protective custody following pressure from advocates, she said.
For Yarde, the years since his conviction have been spent pursuing evidence that he believes demonstrates his innocence.
“At the time I didn’t know,” he said when asked whether he believed prosecutors acted intentionally. “But now I started to understand something over the years since I’ve been incarcerated and it just didn’t make any sense to me.”
Connelly said her involvement began not because of a professional obligation but because she believed the case deserved another look.
“At the core of me, I am a helper,” she said. “And so I just naturally help and give myself in whatever capacity is needed.”
She added that public confidence in the justice system depends on correcting mistakes when evidence emerges that challenges a conviction.
“The public confidence in the justice system, it definitely depends on getting convictions right,” Connelly said.
“And so when evidence contradicts a conviction, then that’s an injustice.”
For now, Yarde’s appeal remains pending as supporters continue pressing courts and prosecutors to reexamine the case.
“The benefit here too is it’s all caught on camera,” Connelly said.
Whether Massachusetts courts ultimately agree remains to be seen, but advocates insist the combination of surveillance footage, expert analysis and post-conviction evidence deserves a full and transparent review.
“I think what we’re hoping is that public attention to the injustices that are happening,” Connelly said, “not only to David’s case, but just in general.”
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