The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • B3

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2012 Boston Globe Metro B3 Gun-control billboard switches focus to assault weapons eais. iiii By Johanna Kaiser GLOBE CORRESPONDENT A prominent billboard known for its eye-catching gun-control ads now feature an updated message calling on voters and lawmakers to support a renewed federal ban on assault weapons. The billboard, 252 feet by 20 feet, hangs above the Massachusetts Turnpike near Fenway Park. Thursday evening, it was transformed to read "Assault weapons have stopping power. Fortunately, so does your vote.

We need a Federal Assault Weapons Ban NOW!" The second and third sentences are separated by a bloody handprint. The new message, which replaces an ad highlighting the numbers on gun violence and deaths, comes just weeks before close presidential and statewide elections and in a year that has seen mass shootings in Aurora, and at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin. Semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips were used in both those attacks. "It's really to encourage people," John Rosenthal.the billboard's owner and founder of the Newton-based Stop Handgun Violence, said Thursday. "We're a nation of people and The change to the 252-by-20-foot billboard above the Massachusetts Turnpike comes just weeks before close presidential and statewide elections.

lion, Rosenthal said. A federal assault weapons ban was in place from 1994 until it expired in 2004. Efforts to renew the ban federal level have been unsuccessful. Massachusetts instituted its own ban on assault weapons in 2004. The state has one of the lowest rates of gun-related deaths per capita.

"Every day, eight kids are buried from largely preventable deaths, and Congress looks the other way," said Rosenthal, also calling for mandatory background checks, gun registration, and strong enforcement. Andrew Arulanandam.a spokesman for the NRA, said gun bans are ineffective because they put a burden on law- abiding citizens, while those who use guns to commit crimes will not follow the law. "The focus of the discussion ought to be to put the burden of the law on criminals, and on arresting, prosecuting, and punishing criminals and people who break the law," he said. Rosenthal has been posting gun control ads on the bill Suspect identified in 1973 slaying, sex assault case laws and our elected officials are supposed to represent the people. So it's aimed at people to use their voice." The billboard will continue to feature a counter displaying the number of American children and teenagers killed by guns daily since the 2010 election, in which the National Rifle Association spent $6.7 mil also a story about hope and perseverance," Conley said in the statement.

"Mary's family never lost their faith that her murder would be solved. Investigators stored the crucial evidence for decades under laboratory conditions, even after the case went cold." He added: "When a new team brought the latest science to the table, that hope and perseverance paid off with a positive identification of her killer. After all these years, we hope this news and the finality of the suspect's death to cancer can provide them some sense of closure." Police and prosecutors have found no evidence to suggest that McClain knew Sumpter, who had a documented history of violence against women living in Beacon Hill and in the Back Bay, officials said. If he were alive today, authorities said he would be charged with murder in the McClain case. "Our dedicated detectives and our crime lab analysts worked tirelessly on this case," Davis said.

"They never gave up, leaving no stone unturned to provide the family with answers. We hope this information gives them some peace." Sumpter was identified as a suspect in all three cases after evidence from the crime scenes was submitted to the Boston Police Crime Laboratory and then to the FBI's Combined DNA Index System, a database of DNA samples from unsolved crimes and known offenders. Last month, similar techniques led to the conviction of serial rapist Charles H. Brook Jr. for the 1989 murder of Zahia Salem, 87, in her South End home, authorities said.

As with Sumpter, Brook was ordered to submit a DNA sample because of his prior convictions. Melissa Werthmann can be reached at melissa. werthmann gk be.com. JONATHAN WIGGSGLOBE STAFF of three defendants arraigned Thursday for his alleged role in the killing of a Boston man. others charged with murder board since 1995.

Previous ads include a satirical advertisement welcoming criminals and terrorists to gun shows, and a mock ransom note from the NRA, declaring "We have your president and Congress." Johanna Kaiser can be reached atjohanna.yourtown gmail.com. ter isn't always fruitful. This is an unfortunate choice that was made, but there are so many kids making the right choice and changing their lives around." Attorney Matthew Feinberg, who represented Johnson, declined to comment about the case. Emmett Folgert, executive director of the Dorchester Youth Collaborative, said the cases of the two young teenagers charged with murder highlight the need for tougher penalties against adults who exert influence over youth to participate in violence. "As a society, we should be clear there's a penalty to pay if you're getting kids under 16 to do your dirty work," Folgert said in a telephone interview.

"There's a problem with gangs feeling that they can bring kids into life-and-death situations, to contributing to the delinquency of minors." Brian Ballou can be reached at bballouglobe.com. Follow him on Twitter globeballou. Dong and Girouard are scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Chelsea District Court. Lai is due to be arraigned Friday morning in Dedham District Court. Travis Andersen and Milton J.

Valencia of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Colin A. Young can be reached at Follow him on Twitter ColinAYoung. By Melissa M. Werthmann GLOBE CORRESPONDENT Boston police identified a dead man as the assailant in the 1973 murder and sexual assault of a 24-year-old woman in her Beacon Hill apartment, officials said Thursday.

Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis and Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced the break in the cold case and identified Michael Sumpter Thursday as the man who raped and strangled 24-year-old Mary Lee McClain on Dec. 12, 1973. Sumpter died of cancer in 2001 while serving a 15-to-20-year sentence for another crime, the rape of a 21-year-old woman in her Beacon Street home in 1975, officials said in a statement.

He was connected to the slaying based on DNA evidence techniques unavailable at the time of the crime, officials said. The brutal attack on McClain is the second slaying from the 1970s that authorities have linked to Sumpter. In 2010, DNA evidence connected him to the 1972 rape and killing of Ellen Rutchick, 23, in her Beacon Street residence. He is also believed to have raped a 21-year-old woman in a Marlborough Street apartment in 1985. In 2002, Sumpter was was linked to that assault from DNA evidence he was ordered to provide following his conviction for the 1975 rape.

Police concluded at the time of McClain's slaying that she was killed by an unknown person who broke into her apartment on Mount Vernon Street. Boston police collected evidence and interviewed several people, but were unable to connect the rape and killing to Sumpter until a federal grant provided the money to launch a cold case investigation in May, officials said. "This is a story about an old case and new technology, but 3 massage By Colin A. Young GLOBE CORRESPONDENT Three massage parlor owners were arrested Thursday in connection with human trafficking charges and in allegedly using their parlors as "thinly veiled fronts for prostitution," Attorney General Martha Coak-ley announced. Zhen Lai, 37, of Quincy, and Joseph Girouard, 55, of Revere, were arrested as a result of an investigation by Coakley's Shakeem Johnson, 21, was one Boy 15, 2 SLAYING Continued from Page Bl tion and possession with intent to distribute drugs.

Johnson was wearing a court-ordered GPS monitoring device when he was arrested Wednesday. The victim's name has not been released by authorities, pending full notification of his family, but police said he was in his early 20s. Christopher Belezos, a lawyer who is representing Hill, said his client is attending a college preparatory program. It is the second time this week that a young teenager has been charged with murder. Ernest Watkins IV, 14, was charged Monday with the stab-bing death of a 39-year-old man who resisted when a group of teenagers allegedly tried to rob him near the Fields Corner MBTA Station, police said.

The South End shooting was one of two killings in Boston on Wednesday. About 11:05 a.m., a 23-year-old man was shot in the head inside an apartment building at Wellesley Police Chief Terrence Cunningham said. "Our investigators started to work on it. Shortly after they got involved in the investigation, it became apparent that it may be more of a human-trafficking case." The department then contacted the attorney general's Criminal Division and immigration officials, he said. Lai and Girouard were also involved in "transporting Asian 14 Lyndhurst St.

in Dorchester, police said. No arrests have been made. The three defendants in the South End slaying were arrested following a police chase that ended on Interstate 93 in Dorchester. The incident began at 6:44 p.m. when, according to witnesses, a male got out of a car stopped in traffic near 85 Southampton walked up to a car that was also stopped in traffic about two or three cars ahead, and fired into that vehicle.

The gunman then returned to the car and got in the back seat. According to Jennifer Hickman, assistant Suffolk district attorney, Hill was driving, and Johnson was in the front passenger's seat. Hickman said there is evidence to show that the three defendants had been driving together in the area prior to the shooting. A Boston detective was nearby and heard the gunfire. The detective, in his cruiser, pursued the suspects' vehicle and managed to trap it in traf females to work at the spas and engage in sexual conduct for a fee," Cunningham said.

The investigation found that the massage parlors were offering sexual acts to clients in exchange for cash classified as tips and advertised on websites "known to advertise prostitution," Coakley's office said. "Human trafficking can exist anywhere, as shown with this investigation," Bruce M. Foucart, special agent in charge fic momentarily, before cars ahead moved and the suspects' vehicle took off. A state trooper then started pursuing the vehicle and stopped it on the Expressway near the Columbia Road off-ramp. The three suspects were taken into custody at gunpoint.

All three defendants were ordered held without bail pending a Dec. 5 probable cause hearing. The families of the defendants were in the courtroom, but declined to comment. Daphne Griffin, chief of the city's Human Services Division, said Johnson was a regular visi-tor to the Tobin Community Center, run by the Boston Centers for Youth and Families. Johnson received at-risk counseling there and would meet one on one with street workers, mentors, and other staff.

On occasion, he played basketball there. "This particular incident happened and Shakeem appears to have been involved," Griffin said. "It's unfortunate that the work done at the cen of Immigration's Homeland Security Investigations Office in Boston, said in a statement. "We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to ensure that those who commit these crimes are held accountable for their actions." On Thursday, investigators were in Maiden, Revere, Quincy, Kingston, Wellesley, and Manchester, N.H., said a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation. parlor owners arrested on prostitution charges office, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Wellesley Police Department.

Lai and Girouard jointly operated Sun Spa in Wellesley and Bodywork in Revere, authorities said. Coakley's office announced late Thursday night that Wenjie Dong, 49, of Maiden had been arrested on the same charges. "We received information back in March that the Sun Spa may be a front for prostitution,".