Martin Jiminez is charged in the alleged murder of his ex-girlfriend in his South Boston sober home. (Credit: Metro Archives)
A woman who was found dead earlier this week inside a South Boston home for recovering substance abusers had gone to gather her belongings from her boyfriend’s apartment.
Martin E. Jiminezwas arrested for the murder of Melissa Hardy, 33, earlier this week. On Thursday he was charged inSouth Boston District Municipal Court as Hardy’s loved ones looked on in emotional distress.
“I used to tell her to get away from him,” James Hardy of Weymouth told the Boston Herald of his daughter and Jiminez, 43. “I even told her a couple of days ago, ‘Don’t go near that house unless someone’s with you…You’ve got to stay out of abusive situations. He told her where to go, what to do, what to eat. He was making her do everything, and she thought it was all right.”
Michael Doolin, Jiminez’s attorney, requested that his client undergo a mental health examination at Bridgewater State Hospital, according to the Boston Globe.He is due back in court Aug. 8.
State representative Marty Walsh commented on the status of unregulated sober homes in Boston, and vows to clean them up if elected.
“Unregulated sober homes are a problem in Boston, where the housing stock in some neighborhoods – big, rambling structures that once housed large families – are attractive to companies looking to maximize profits by advertising sober homes despite the fact that these homes are poorly run, with no programmatic basis, and no oversight,” Walsh said, according to Universal Hub.“Some of them exploit families by offering recovery hope to people, while in reality, they offer no path to recovery.”
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