Man convicted of killing two doctors in South Boston sentenced to life without parole

Bampumim Teixeira.Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff

The man convicted of killing two doctors during a robbery of their South Boston condominium was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Bampumim Teixeira, 33, watched the proceedings in Suffolk Superior Court via video link after a pair of angry outbursts Tuesday, shortly before a jury found him guilty of murdering Lina Bolaños, 38, and her fiance, Richard Field, 49, on May 5, 2017.

Judge Mitchell Kaplan told a courtroom packed with the couple’s friends and relatives that Teixeira “made it quite clear that he did not wish to be in this courtroom for these proceedings and that he would not conduct himself in the manner necessary to permit him to be present.”

In a victim impact statement, Ana Delia Vergara, Bolaños’s mother, said her daughter had “unequaled warmth,” loved children, and was passionate about her job as a pediatric anesthesiologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear.

“I just want to thank God for choosing me as a mother of that wonderful being, that exceptional being,” Vergara said of her daughter, who immigrated to the United States from Colombia. “I will live eternally grateful and very proud of all that she accomplished in her short life.”

Vergara, who spoke through a Spanish translator, said Field was the love of her daughter’s life.

“They will love each other forever in heaven,” she said.

Teixeira could be seen on a video screen in the courtroom, handcuffed as he sat at a table flanked by court officers. He nodded his head in agreement when Field’s brother, Jason, referred to him as a “monster” during his victim impact statement.

Jason Field recalled how he and his brother came to America from England as teenagers, often fending for themselves as children of a working single parent. They quickly discovered they could live “amazing lives” if they worked hard and developed skills, he said.

Richard Field opened his own practice in Beverly and taught anesthesia and pain management at Harvard Medical School, where he met “the love of his life” in Bolaños, his brother said.

The couple loved to travel and experience different cultures. She was planning to whisk Field away for a surprise 50th birthday party on Mauritius Island in the Indian Ocean. The couple had plans to open a clinic in the Bahamas for the poor, Jason Field said.

The couple’s family and friends will do their best to carry on the couple’s legacy, he said. Their memory “will be defined not by how they died, but how they lived, with passion, energy, kindness, compassion and love,” he said.

Teixeira declined to make a statement and showed no emotion when he was asked to stand as the judge sentenced him to two consecutive life terms in prison. He nodded when Kaplan said he was imposing additional sentences for kidnapping, home invasion, and armed robbery.

On Tuesday, Teixeira taunted the couple’s relatives by yelling, “Want to know his last words?” and was forcibly removed from the courtroom before the verdict came down. Earlier in the day, he threatened Assistant District Attorney John Pappas, the lead prosecutor at trial.

“Hey Pappas,” Teixeira yelled. “You better hope I never get out of jail. Your wife is getting [expletive].”

Teixeira, who had worked as a concierge at the Macallen Building for three weeks in 2016, used his knowledge to bypass security and sneak up to the 11th floor, where he hid in a utility closet with a peephole, prosecutors said. He attacked Bolaños when she got off the elevator and forced his way into her apartment. He was inside when Field arrived home about an hour and a half later.

Bolaños and Field were found stabbed to death with their hands handcuffed behind their backs. Police were alerted that a friend of the couple’s had received a text from Field’s phone that a gunman was in the apartment. Officers shot Teixeira during a confrontation inside the penthouse condominium as he was about to leave with a bag filled with the couple’s jewelry.

In an interview with Boston police detectives the following day that prosecutors dismissed as “preposterous,” Teixeira claimed he was having an affair with Bolaños and was chatting with her when Field came home, became enraged, and killed her. Teixeira claimed he killed Field in self-defense.

Outside the courtroom on Friday, Bolaños’s mother said she was deeply hurt by Teixeira’s efforts to defame her daughter and Field and thanked Pappas and Boston police for clearing their names.

“I know that I will never get to see my daughter again, or Richard for that matter, but that monster will not destroy any more families,” Vergara said.

In June 2016, Teixeira, who was born in Guinea-Bissau and came to the United States in 2010, was arrested for robbing a bank in downtown Boston and told investigators that he had robbed the same bank two years earlier. Both times, he passed notes to tellers and threatened to shoot people if he wasn’t given money. He did not display a gun and later told police he was unarmed.

Teixeira’s lawyer reached a plea agreement with prosecutors to protect him from potential deportation. Teixeira was a permanent resident.

Judge Lisa Grant signed off on the deal, imposing a sentence one day shy of a year to avoid action by US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. He served nine months in jail and killed the doctors weeks after his release.

In his opening statement to jurors, Pappas said they may never know what motivated Teixeira to kill two innocent people.

“There is no answer,” Bolaños’s godfather, Michael Gibbs, said to reporters. “Some people, for whatever reason, they become evil in their ways.”

Kevin Cullen of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.