Pittsfield — On Thursday, October 6, two residents involved in the murder of 18-year-old Jaden Salois were sentenced to life in prison without parole. According to a press release by the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office, the two residents sentenced were Chiry Omar Pascual-Polanco, 26, and Carlos Pascual-Polanco, 22.
The Berkshire District Attorney’s Office obtained the guilty convictions on September 22, after a two-week Berkshire Superior Court jury trial. Jurors found the Polanco brothers guilty of murder in the first degree, two counts of possession of a firearm without a firearm identification card (FID), two counts of possession of ammunition without an FID, and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.
“I send my condolences to Jaden’s loved ones, and I admire their courage in delivering their powerful victim impact statements to the court,” District Attorney Andrea Harrington wrote in the press release. “Jaden is gone but lives on in the hearts of those who loved him, and I hope this measure of accountability supports his family. I thank the Pittsfield Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police for their investigation into this senseless homicide, and I am proud of the trial team for their presentation of the facts to the jury.”
According to the office, the brothers operated a marijuana distribution operation through a fake social media account and used that to lure Salois, of Dalton, from an Edward Avenue home in Pittsfield and shot him in the back at approximately 2 a.m. on January 20, 2019. The brothers then planned methods to avoid prosecution, which investigators uncovered.
Police arrested the brothers on April 5, 2019. The Commonwealth called more than 30 witnesses during the two-week trial and proved that the pair acted premeditatedly in orchestrating the murder.
A third co-defendant, Dasean Smith, 24 of Pittsfield, is also charged with murder and will be tried separately.
