Bampumim Teixeira Case: Doctor Murders, Trial, and Appeal

The Bampumim Teixeira case ended with two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the May 2017 murders of Dr. Lina Bolanos and Dr. Richard Field, an engaged couple stabbed to death in their South Boston penthouse. Teixeira, a former concierge at the victims’ luxury condominium building, used what he had learned on the job to break in, bind, rob, and kill them. A Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted him on all counts in December 2019, and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the convictions in October 2022.¹

The Victims

Dr. Lina Bolanos, 38, was a pediatric anesthesiologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear. The hospital’s CEO called her “outstanding” and said she was “in the prime of both her career and life.”² Dr. Richard Field, 49, was an anesthesiologist and pain management specialist who had helped establish North Shore Pain Management in 2010.³ The two were engaged and lived together in an eleventh-floor penthouse at the Macallen Building, 141 Dorchester Avenue.

How Teixeira Got Into the Building

From October 2015 to April 2016, Teixeira worked for Palladion Services as a concierge and security guard at the Macallen Building. During his employment, he was trained on building security, including surveillance camera operations, contractor policies, and stairwell access to the eleventh-floor penthouses.⁴

On the afternoon of May 5, 2017, security cameras captured him lurking outside the building’s garage starting around 2:40 p.m., wearing dark clothing, gloves, and a bright green reflective vest. At about 3:50 p.m., he slipped into the garage on foot by following a car through the door, then used the stairwells and elevator to reach the eleventh floor. A staircase door leading to the penthouse level was unlocked that day.⁵¹

His backpack held a rubber mask, a fake beard, wire cutters, duct tape, a black BB gun, and multiple knives.⁶

The Killings

Teixeira entered the penthouse and waited. Dr. Bolanos arrived home around 5:00 p.m., and Dr. Field arrived at about 6:30 p.m. Teixeira bound their hands with duct tape and held them hostage. Both were beaten and fatally stabbed. Bolanos sustained 24 stab wounds, including one that severed her jugular vein. Field died from a stab wound that severed his carotid artery. Before he died, Field managed to text a friend that there was a gunman in the apartment and to call 911.⁷⁶

Teixeira scrawled messages on the apartment walls, including “payback” and “he killed my wife,” and marked an “X” over a photograph of Field. He stuffed the couple’s jewelry into a backpack. He later told detectives he took it because he was “greedy,” saying he had “never seen all those kind of jewelry before” and planned to sell it.⁸

The Police Confrontation

Field’s friend called 911 and the building’s front desk after receiving the texts, and the front desk attendant also called 911. Boston Police officers arrived and found a set of keys outside the door to the unit. They used the keys to enter the darkened apartment, where they encountered Teixeira. Believing he had pointed or fired a weapon at them, two officers opened fire, striking him in the hand, abdomen, and leg. The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office later clarified that Teixeira had not fired at the officers; the weapon recovered at the scene was a replica BB gun.⁷

Teixeira was hospitalized. On May 8, 2017, he was arraigned from his hospital bed on two counts of murder, a not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf, and he was held without bail.³

Why He Was Free: The Bank Robberies and Plea Deal

Teixeira had robbed the same Citizens Bank branch on Summer Street in downtown Boston twice before the murders. In August 2014 he stole $600 by passing a note to a teller and threatening to “shoot up the bank.” In June 2016 he took $212 from the same branch using the same method. He was unarmed both times.⁹

At a September 2016 plea hearing, prosecutors and defense attorneys jointly recommended reducing the charges from two counts of unarmed robbery to two counts of larceny from a person. The agreed sentence was 364 days in jail, one day short of the one-year threshold that would have classified the conviction as an “aggravated felony” under federal immigration law and triggered mandatory deportation. The 2014 robbery was resolved as “guilty filed,” a disposition that did not count as grounds for removal. Teixeira served a nine-month committed sentence with credit for time served, followed by three years of court supervision. After his release, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it had “no legal position” with him.¹⁰¹¹

The Trial and the Defense Theory

The trial began in Suffolk Superior Court in November 2019 before Judge Mitchell Kaplan. Prosecutors presented security camera footage, text messages from Field’s phone, the contents of the two backpacks recovered at the scene, and police testimony about the confrontation inside the apartment. Assistant District Attorney John Pappas told jurors Teixeira had been “looking, waiting and lurking” on the day of the murders and had spent months planning the robbery based on his knowledge of the building.¹²

Teixeira’s defense rested on his claim that he had been having a months-long affair with Dr. Bolanos and that her engagement to Field was a “sham.” He alleged that when Field came home and found him, Field flew into a rage and killed Bolanos, and that he then killed Field in self-defense. Prosecutors dismissed this as “the theater of the absurd,” saying there was no evidence Teixeira had any personal relationship with either victim.¹³

After eight days of testimony and less than eight hours of deliberation, the jury on December 10, 2019, found Teixeira guilty on all counts. He was convicted on all three theories of first-degree murder for both victims: deliberate premeditation, extreme atrocity or cruelty, and felony murder. The jury also convicted him of one count of home invasion, two counts of kidnapping, and two counts of armed robbery.⁶

Courtroom Outbursts and Sentencing

Teixeira’s behavior was volatile throughout the trial. On the morning the jury resumed deliberations, he lunged at prosecutor Pappas after his restraints were removed and yelled a threat against Pappas’s wife. Judge Kaplan ruled he had forfeited his right to remain in the courtroom. Shortly before the verdict was read, Teixeira taunted the victims’ families, asking, “You wanna know his last words?” He was physically dragged from the courtroom by court officers. He was not present when the verdict was read.¹⁴

On December 13, 2019, Judge Kaplan sentenced Teixeira to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murders. He also imposed a twenty-year sentence for home invasion, a nine-to-ten-year sentence for kidnapping, and a twenty-five-year sentence for armed robbery. Teixeira again refused to appear. Judge Kaplan told the courtroom, “Quite frankly, in this case, I don’t have any words of closure.”¹⁵

The 2022 Appeal

Teixeira appealed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, arguing that the prosecutor made improper emotional remarks in closing, that the jury instructions on extreme atrocity or cruelty were flawed, and that the jury should have been required to agree unanimously on which specific factors supported that theory.¹

On October 20, 2022, the SJC rejected all of those arguments and affirmed the convictions. The court found that the prosecutor’s closing remarks, which included the statement that the victims were “engaged for eternity” and that Bolanos would “never be [Field’s] bride,” were permissible responses to the defense’s claim that the engagement was a sham. On the jury instructions, the court declined to apply a 2020 revision retroactively and held that no specific unanimity was required on the individual factors used to assess extreme atrocity or cruelty, because those factors are evidentiary considerations rather than elements of the crime. The court also noted that even if the challenges to the extreme-atrocity theory had succeeded, the convictions would have stood on the unchallenged theories of deliberate premeditation and felony murder.¹¹⁶

The Wrongful Death Lawsuit

On August 7, 2017, the families of both victims filed a wrongful death suit in Suffolk Superior Court against the trust that owned the Macallen Building, the building’s management, and the security companies Palladion Services and Highbridge Concierge. The complaint alleged that Palladion had hired Teixeira despite his criminal history — the first bank robbery occurred in August 2014, before his October 2015 hiring — and had not informed Highbridge, which took over building security in early 2017, about his background. It also alleged that the staircase door providing access to all floors was left unlocked on the day of the murders, that the garage was easily accessible when doors were opened for residents, and that the Highbridge guard on duty delayed calling 911 for twenty to thirty minutes after being alerted to the attack. The suit sought a jury trial on twelve counts, including wrongful death and negligence. Palladion said Teixeira had passed his initial background checks and declined to comment further on the pending litigation.¹⁷

1
Findlaw. Commonwealth v. Teixeira, SJC-13007
2
Boston Herald. Mass Eye and Ear Boss Privileged To Know Slain Doc
3
ABC News. Engaged Boston Doctors Double Murder
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CBS News Boston. South Boston Murder Suspect Worked in Building Doctors Murdered
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Boston.com. South Boston Suspect Lurked in Garage Before Murders, Prosecutors Say
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Suffolk County District Attorney. Jury Convicts Defendant in 2017 Double Murder
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WREG. Man Found Guilty of Murder in Bloody Killings of Engaged Doctors in Their Boston Penthouse
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Boston Globe. Teixeira Trial Coverage
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Boston Herald. Suspect in Doctors Slayings Avoided Deportation With Plea Deal for Earlier Bank Heists
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CBS News Boston. South Boston Murder Suspect Loophole Deported
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NBC Boston. Man Accused of South Boston Double Murder Had Previously Faced Deportation
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Boston Herald. Trial for Man Charged in Double Murder of Southie Doctors Gets Underway
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WBUR. Bampumim Teixeira Trial Richard Field Lina Bolanos
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WCVB. Man Accused of Killing Boston Doctors Threatens Prosecutor in Court
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Boston Herald. Bampumim Teixeira Sentenced to Life in Prison for Slaying 2 Doctors
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Boston Globe. Supreme Judicial Court Upholds Convictions Man Who Murdered Two Doctors South Boston Condo
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CBS News Boston. South Boston Doctors Murdered Lawsuit Macallen Building