Boston man found guilty of 2015 Dorchester home invasion and murder after retrial
BOSTON, June 25, 2026 – A Suffolk Superior jury today convicted VICTOR ARRINGTON, 40, of Boston on first-degree murder and charges related to a 2015 Dorchester home invasion that killed one man and left his fiancée with a gunshot wound to the head, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden announced.
Arrington was found guilty of first-degree murder, home invasion, armed assault to murder, unlawful possession of a firearm and two counts of kidnapping. Arrington is scheduled to be sentenced on June 30 at 9 a.m. in courtroom 817. Victim impact statements are expected.
First-degree murder convictions in Massachusetts carry a mandatory life prison sentence without possibility of parole.
Arrington's first trial in May 2024 ended in a mistrial when a jury could not reach a unanimous verdict.
On March 31, 2015, Arrington and two other men planned to assault and rob a man who lived on Harvard Street in Dorchester. However, the assailants went to the wrong home and forced themselves into the Dorchester apartment of Richard Long, 37. When Long, an ironworker and member of Local 7, answered the door the men forced him and his fiancée to their bedroom and tied them with electrical cords. Realizing that they had entered the wrong home, the men decided to kill Long and his fiancée to cover their tracks.
The men stabbed Long with a knife, shot him in the head, shot Long’s fiancée in the head, and poured bleach on the victims. Then, with the couple’s infant child in the bedroom, the men set fire to the kitchen and fled. Long died at the scene. Long's fiancée regained consciousness, grabbed her infant son, and climbed the stairs to a neighbor’s apartment to get help.
Arrington was arrested on July 12, 2016.
A second man, James Boyd, 33, is charged with home invasion, assault with a dangerous weapon and two counts of kidnapping. He is expected to change his plea on July 1.
The third man was identified but never charged because he was murdered in April 2015.
The Arrington case is notable because the Commonwealth was able to present to the jury location information stored in the Frequent Location History (FLH) in Arrington’s iPhone. After a lengthy evidentiary hearing in which the court heard from leading experts in the digital forensic community, the court allowed the admission of FLH over the defendant’s attempt to exclude. While Frequent Location History evidence has been introduced in other cases, the Arrington case is the first time that such evidence has been presented to a jury over a defendant’s objection.
Hayden thanked the jurors for the verdict, praised the investigative work of Boston police detectives, and credited the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office Digital Evidence Lab (AGODEL) for its extensive work on the case. The AGODEL is part of the Massachusetts Cybercrime Coalition, which includes Hayden’s office and several other district attorney offices.
“This team effort helped secure a just verdict in an extraordinarily harrowing case, notable not only for its shocking violence against completely innocent victims but also for the precedent it set in the use of advanced digital evidence. But most important of all is the opportunity for Richard Long’s family and loved ones to see someone held accountable for this terrible crime,” Hayden said.
All charged individuals are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office serves the communities of Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop. Our office handles more than 20,000 cases a year. Nearly 160 assistant district attorneys practice in nine district and municipal courts, Suffolk Superior Court, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, the Boston and Chelsea Juvenile Courts and the Supreme Judicial Court. Our office employs some 300 people and offers a wide range of services and programs for anyone encountering the criminal justice system. We are committed to educating the public about our mission and services while focusing on crime prevention to keep the residents, workers and visitors of Suffolk County safe.
James Borghesani, Chief of Communications