DA expresses opposition as Massachusetts man who killed his parents and sister is up for parole

NATICK – Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz testified in opposition before the
Massachusetts Parole Board this week at the petition for release hearing of 48-year-old Kuluwn Asar, formerly known as Gerard McCra III.

On October 9, 1993, then 15-year-old Gerard McCra, argued with both of his parents. McCra possessed a firearm and later that same day, shot his mother, Merle McCra, 36, in the head, inside their family home in Rochester. McCra then went outside and executed his father, Gerard McCra, Jr., 34, and his sister, 11-year-old Melanie, shooting them in the back of their heads inside the family car as he sat in the backseat.

In 1995, a Plymouth County jury found McCra guilty of the murders, and he was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences without the possibility of parole. On June 3, 1998, the Supreme Judicial Court affirmed his convictions. In 2013, the SJC issued a decision, Diatchenko v. District Attorney for Suffolk District & Others. In the decision, the Court determined that the statutory provisions mandating life without the possibility of parole were invalid as applied to juveniles convicted of first-degree murder. The Court further decided that the juveniles must be given a parole hearing. Because McCra was 15-years-old at the time of the murders, he became parole eligible.

On May 30, 2019, McCra first appeared before the state Parole Board for a review hearing where DA Cruz spoke in opposition to his parole. In March 2020, the state Parole Board unanimously denied McCra’s parole.

At McCra’s Parole Board hearing on May 16, 2024, DA Cruz testified once again. In October 2024, the state Parole Board issued their unanimous decision to deny parole to McCra.