Taunton man convicted of murder in stabbing death of 19-year-old Milteer Hendricks

BARNSTABLE — A Barnstable County jury has convicted Adrian Black of Taunton of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of 19-year-old Milteer Hendricks of Falmouth, Cape & Islands District Attorney Robert Galibois announced.

The jury returned the verdict on Thursday, following a two-week trial that began on March 19th. After deliberating for approximately two hours, the jury found Black guilty in the death of Hendricks, which occurred on June 10, 2023, at an apartment complex in Falmouth.

According to evidence presented at trial, five individuals, including Black, arrived at the complex in a BMW with the intention of attacking Hendricks. The victim was unarmed and outnumbered. Surveillance video from the complex, cell phone videos, and witness statements showed Black stabbing Hendricks in the chest. Hendricks was rushed to Falmouth Hospital and then med-flighted to a Boston-area hospital, where he died of his injuries the following day, June 11, 2023.

Black, who was 22 years old at the time of the killing, fled the scene with the other four individuals in the BMW. He was arrested the next day, June 12, 2023, in Taunton and charged with murder.

The case was investigated by the Falmouth Police Department and Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to the Cape & Islands District Attorney’s Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Thomas Flanagan, Chief of the Narcotics and Firearms Unit; Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Sweeney, Chief of the Appeals Unit; and Assistant District Attorney Michael Preble, along with Victim Witness Advocate Deborah McCoy.

A conviction for first-degree murder in Massachusetts carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Hendricks was described as “the most kind, friendly, loving and respectable, son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin, uncle, lover and friend. A true gentle giant”

Black is scheduled to be sentenced in Barnstable Superior Court on Friday.