LAUREN ASTLEY - 18 yo - Wayland MA

An 18-year-old Wayland man was
arrested this morning for the weekend murder of an aspiring young
fashion designer he once dated who had just graduated from Wayland High
School last month and was preparing for college this fall.


Nathaniel Fujita will be arraigned this morning in Framingham
District Court for the death of Lauren Astley, whose body was found by a
bicyclist early yesterday morning along a marshy area of Route 27 with
an “obvious wound to her neck,’’ according to a statement released by
Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone and Wayland Police Chief Robert
Irving.


Fujita once dated Astley, but it was unclear if they still had a relationship, the DA said.Yesterday, Lauren Astley’s heartbroken dad had appealed to the
community to help find out what happened in his daughter’s final
minutes.
“What I’m most concerned about now is whether anybody can step
forward and provide information on the time slot from 7:45 p.m. to 8
o’clock” on Sunday, father Malcolm Astley told the Herald yesterday
outside his Boston Post Road home, where friends stopped in to exchange
hugs and offer condolences.
“Something happened in there. There were some vehicles, some people.
Anyone that has information that can help us protect kids,” he said.
Lauren Astley left work at about 6:40 p.m. Sunday and was last seen at about 7:45 p.m., her dad said.
Police found her abandoned Jeep Grand Cherokee at the Wayland town beach 15 minutes later, he said.
A passing bicyclist discovered Lauren Astley’s body in a marshy area
along Route 27 in Wayland at about 7:30 a.m. yesterday. She appeared to
have been murdered, according to a statement from Leone’s office.
Malcolm Astley said he didn’t know anyone who would have wanted to harm his daughter.
“Things will work out. In mysterious ways, they can and will,” said
Astley, his voice trembling, seeking solace that something good may yet
come out of his daughter’s apparent murder.
“This kind of terrible event will lead to a stronger community,” Astley said.
Astley, who said he had a sleepless night Sunday, remembered his
daughter as a young woman with a wide variety of interests who had
“grown to shape her own path.” She graduated from Wayland High School in
the spring and already had begun to choose courses at Elon University
in central North Carolina, where she was set to enroll in the fall.
She dreamed of entering the fashion design business some day, her dad said.
But she also was interested in anatomy and wanted to study in the
university’s cadaver lab and continue taking voice lessons, he said.
She belonged to an a Capella group and had been an actress, once
landing the lead role of Annie as an eighth-grader in a town play called
“A Kinder and Gentler Annie.”Her autopsy will be
conducted today. Authorities are still investigating the circumstances,
cause and manner of death, according to the DA.
Astley said he last saw his daughter Sunday when they had lunch together.
“If you have children,” Astley said, “treasure them.”
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1349784&format=&page=2&listingType=Loc#articleFull

MALCOLM ASTLEY, the father of 18-year-old
murder victim Lauren Astley, has suffered the unimaginable. But in the
aftermath of his profound loss, he has shown something else almost
unimaginable in these circumstances: compassion.
Victims
can set the tone for how a town deals with tragedy. For Wayland - where
both Lauren Astley and the former boyfriend charged with her murder,
Nathaniel Fujita, just graduated from high school - the killing was a
vicious shock. Astley’s apparent concern for the suspect’s family and -
yes - even the suspect himself creates an atmosphere of unification
rather than inciting fear and revenge.
“The
whole community can be thought of as losing two kids,’’ said Malcolm
Astley, a Wayland school committee member and former Lexington High
School principal. He is the one comforting his community, instead of the
other way around.
He may
well enter a period of anger; any parent’s reaction to losing a child is
mutable and ultimately private, and no one can predict his or her own
reaction in the same situation. And the killing, in what appears to have
been a bloody explosion of domestic violence, invites other questions -
such as how to identify when teenage angst is likely to turn violent,
and how communities can protect themselves and their young people.
But
in this one instance, this one death of a child in a region that’s seen
too much violence already this year, we can look to Astley and get a
glimpse of how we might heal together.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2011/07/08/a_fathers_offer_of_forgiveness/

The mother of Lauren Astley, the Wayland High school graduate
allegedly murdered by her ex-boyfriend, spoke out today about the loss
of her only child.
In a statement released through Middlesex prosecutors, Mary Dunne
said that she wanted to thank the Wayland community and the friends of
her daughter for their support since Monday when her daughter’s body was
found in marshy land off Water Row.
“I want to thank the media for respecting my privacy and thank our
friends, family, and community for their support during what has been,
and continues to be, an excruciatingly difficult time for our family,’’
she said in the statement.
The 18-year-old Astley’s ex-boyfriend, Nathaniel Fujita, allegedly
slashed Ashley’s throat, strangled her with a bungee cord and tossed her
body in the marsh. The couple dated for three years until this spring
when Astley nded the relationship.
Fujita and Astley met at Fujita’s Wayland home Sunday night when he
allegedly murdered her. Bloodstains and bloody clothing belonging to
Fujita were found in his home, prosecutors said in court.
Fujita, 18, has pleaded not guilty to first degree murder and is being held without bail.
In the statement, the grieving mother described the pain she is feeling and talks about the child she has lost.
“Lauren was my only child, a beautiful, bright, charismatic young
woman who filled my life, and many others, with joy for 18 years,’’ the
mother said in the statement.
Without mentioning Fujita by name, the mother added that “Lauren was
stolen from us all too soon and we may never understand why this
happened and how anyone, especially someone who was supposed to care for
her, could do this. ‘’
Dunne said she each day since she learned of her daughter’s murder
has been filled with pain because she no longer has her daughter in her
daily life.
“I will wake up daily to the awful pain of her absence, but will also
search the sky nightly for the glittering star she has become,’’ the
child’s mother’s said.
She added, “we will continue to grieve for the tremendous loss of
Lauren and continue to request privacy at this very difficult time.”

http://www.boston.com/Boston/metrodesk/2011/07/mother-murdered-wayland-teen-says-daughter-now-glittering-star-the-sky/PVXYPJiCVAVddmAvwp0ocK/index.html

Victim's mom takes stand in Wayland murder trial



Posted: 02/28/13 at 12:40 pm   
Updated: 02/28/13 at 4:39 pm



WOBURN, Mass. (WHDH) -- The mother of Lauren Astley took the stand Thursday against her daughter’s ex-boyfriend who is accused of killing Astley after they broke up.

“This is my only child, Lauren Astley," said Mary Dunne.

Racked with pain, Dunne took the stand for the prosecution and her daughter, 18-year-old Lauren Astley, allegedly killed by the defendant Nathaniel Fujita whom she says was out of control at Astley's graduation party.

“I told Nathaniel he needed to settle down, he and Lauren were no longer dating, that this was Lauren's grad party and she deserved to enjoy herself,” said Dunne.

Fujita sobbed openly in court, hanging his head as he listened. His parents sitting behind him were in tears as well. That day at the party, Fujita had allegedly been shaking the poles holding up the party tent in the back yard.

“He said he hadn’t done anything. I told him that if there were any further complaints I would be asking him to leave the party,” said Dunne.

There were more and Dunne called his mother and she picked him up. Astley's mother was the prosecutions' last witness. Then the defense began presenting its case by calling Fujita's aunt.

When asked about Fujita’s demeanor, his aunt said, “He was fairly quiet, seemed pretty sad.”

Describing Fujita after the breakup, she said she pushed him to get a fresh start.

“I was encouraging him that he would meet many girls in his lifetime,” she said.

Instead, he was arrested at a family barbeque, charged with strangling and stabbing to death the girl of his dreams.

Both sides in this case are expected to present their closing arguments at the beginning of next week. The jury could have the case by midweek.

Nathaniel Fujita found guilty in Wayland murder


Globe Correspondent and Globe Staff  

March 08, 2013


WOBURN — Moments after Nathaniel Fujita was convicted of murdering Malcolm Astley’s only child, the bereft father stepped out of the protective circle of his family and friends and walked toward the killer’s parents, who stood silently on the opposite side of the courtroom.

As he opened his arms, they leaned in and wept.

The embrace lasted for less than a minute. Then, Astley turned and walked out, leaving the Fujitas to face their own grief.

The verdict came Thursday after three weeks of testimony in Middlesex Superior Court about the night of July 3, 2011, when Fujita lured his former high school girlfriend, Lauren Astley, to his Wayland home and then beat, strangled, and slashed the 18-year-old to death in his garage.



Nathaniel Fujita convicted on murder charges

• 3/22: Grieving father hopes to turn loss into lesson
  

Judge Peter Lauriat sentenced Fujita, 20, to life in prison without parole after a jury of eight men and four women found him guilty of first-degree murder with premeditation and extreme atrocity.

The verdict was a rejection of the defense’s argument that Fujita was psychotic at the time of the killing and therefore not criminally responsible. Prosecutors said Fujita was simply enraged after Astley broke up with him.

Ken McGagh/MetroWest Daily News via associated press/pool

Malcolm Astley embraced Tomo Fujita and his wife, Beth Mattingly-Fujita, on Thursday after the verdict.

“There is hardly a day still after nearly two years when I, and I think her mother, do not sob over some aspect of the loss of Lauren or the affronts she experienced,” Malcolm Astley said during his victim impact statement before sentencing.

“Her personal losses, such as the end of a chance to sing beautifully; to build a future through Elon University; to bring forth another family generation, since the eggs inside her have also died along with her chance to be a mother; the extreme pain and fear I believe she experienced in death; the loss of Nate as I and she thought we knew him.”

Astley, whose compassion in the wake of his daughter’s murder has stunned many, called on Fujita to apologize “deeply and repeatedly” for his crime, and to atone for it by working to end violence against women.

Astley and his former wife formed the Lauren Dunne Astley Memorial Fund after their daughter’s death, which supports programs to promote healthy teen relationships, as well as the arts and community service.

Astley told The Globe last year that he kept in touch with Fujita’s mother after the slaying, until lawyers advised them both to stop communicating

Lauren Astley and Fujita had dated throughout high school; their families had been close.

Both had seemed on the cusp of bright lives — he, a football star accepted early to Trinity College, and she a talented singer who had already picked out her college roommates.

Astley’s slaying rocked Wayland, a small suburb of about 13,000, and every day of the trial, the courtroom was packed with people who knew her.

Fujita, who alternated between stoic silence and sobs throughout the trial, stood silently as jurors read out their verdict.
He put his head down as Astley’s parents read their impact statements.


Lauren Astley was recalled as a talented singer who was headed for college.

“I am Lauren Dunne Astley’s mother. But never again will I be called mom, or mommy or mother,” said Mary Dunne in her statement. “Lauren was my only child, and she brought instant light and joy into my life. She grew into a young woman with many talents: but what I treasured most about her was her uncanny ability to draw people into her circle.

“I also treasured and miss her voice desperately. Whether singing or pleading for a new pair of shoes, her voice was lovely. But now there is silence.”

The last moments of Astley’s life, detailed again and again during the trial, haunt her, Dunne said.

“They torment me and I feel powerless to stop them.”

Fujita’s lawyer, William Sullivan, did not dispute during the trial that his client had killed Astley, but argued that Fujita was experiencing a “brief psychotic episode” and could not control his actions.

Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Wade Myers testified for the defense that in the weeks leading up to the killing, Fujita had slipped into a severe depression and was self-medicating with marijuana. Years of head injuries from football had left Fujita with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which made him vulnerable to a break with reality, Myers said.

But testimony from Fujita’s own family contradicted his defense. His cousin, Caroline Saba, testified that the day before the killing, the two went to the beach together, and Fujita played catch, smoked marijuana, ate ice cream, and went shopping.

The day after the killing, while police searched his home, Fujita went to Saba’s house in Framingham and chatted with her about their childhood while sitting on her bed. She asked him if police would find anything at his house.

“He said, ‘They’re not gonna find a weapon there, if that’s what you mean,’ ” Saba testified.

Police officers described the Fujitas’ blood-spattered garage and the bloody clothing they found hidden in a crawl space in his bedroom; the medical examiner described the many slashes on Astley’s throat made so close together that he did not count them all.

Ken McGagh/MetroWest Daily News via associated press/pool

Nathaniel Fujita entered the Middlesex Superior courtroom on Thursday before his sentencing. His defense that he was psychotic at the time of the killing was rejected.

In addition to first-degree murder, Fujita was convicted of two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and one count of assault and battery.

“We’re disappointed with the verdict,” Sullivan said at a press conference after the sentencing. “We knew that this was a possibility. We were hopeful that the jury would have been able to grasp and understand the depths of mental illness.”
Sullivan said his client was overwhelmed, and that it was not clear whether he would apologize, as Malcolm Astley asked.

“If there is ever going to be a conversation like that, it will not be done in public,” Sullivan said.

Appeal is automatic in first-degree murder convictions, and Sullivan said he believes he has grounds, though he did not specify them.

Fujita’s parents did not comment.

Prosecutor Lisa McGovern said at a press conference after the sentencing that she looked for a “message of hope in this horror.”

“Perhaps the foil here, the message is also that most men do not commit violence against women,” she said. “There are fathers in this case, the fathers of the beautiful women who you saw testify who are also disgusted by the idea that a man would use his strength in that way.”

Several police officers who worked on the case came to court during the trial.

At the press conference, with Astley’s parents standing behind him, Wayland Chief of Police Robert Irving said that though the end of the trial would not dull their pain, Wayland would remember their daughter.

“Might I suggest that on every Fourth of July, each of us have a moment of reflection,” he said, “to remember there once was a young woman who loved to sing, who graduated from Wayland High School with the Class of 2011, and was looking forward to going to college. Her name was Lauren Dunne Astley.”

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/massachusetts/2013/03/08/jury-deliberations-resume-trial-nathaniel-fujita-accused-murdering-girlfriend-wayland/nos9cTCbqZLaJ1ls0p8WuK/story.html