Hunt for man wanted in connection with 2003 South End murders ends in Hyde Park traffic stop

Carlos Silva, an alleged driver for a pair of murderers who gunned down two men in a car in the South End in 2003, was arrested yesterday afternoon after a traffic stop in Cleary Square, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Silva, 32, originally had a deal with prosecutors to testify in exchange for a charge of being an accessory after the fact to the murders of Jose Daveiga and Christopher Carvalho. But after he and another alleged driver fled, prosecutors dropped the deal and now Silva faces two counts of first-degree murder, which could put him behind bars for the rest of his life without a chance of parole.

The DA's office recounts its basic case against Silva and the murders, which came at the height of an outbreak of violence in Boston's Cape Verdean community:

Both victims were struck multiple times. Daveiga died at Boston Medical Center a short time later. Carvalho survived, but was paralyzed from the neck down and died of pneumonia in 2007 at the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, where he was confined to a bed and reliant upon a machine to provide him with oxygen.

Within an hour of the shooting, Boston Police stopped Daniel Fernandes' vehicle, obtained a Boston Municipal Court search warrant, and recovered a firearm and shell casings consistent with the victims' injuries and evidence at the scene. Additional investigation led to Silva's identification as the driver of the other vehicle. Both drivers were indicted as accessories after the fact to the shootings with the agreement that they would testify truthfully in proceedings against Odair Fernandes and two other gunmen. Instead, both fled the area and Suffolk homicide prosecutors were forced to terminate murder charges against the latter two defendants with the option of refiling them at a later date. Odair Fernandes was tried in 2006 and convicted of first-degree murder and armed assault with intent to murder. He is serving a life term without the possibility of parole plus an additional 18 years.

The agreements with both drivers were declared null and void when they deliberately failed to appear for trial. Both were subsequently indicted for the victims’ homicides and remained at large as fugitives. Daniel Fernandes later surrendered and pleaded guilty to his role in 2009; Silva was apprehended after painstaking work by the Boston Police Fugitive Unit and US Marshals Office.

Innocent, etc.