LAWRENCE — The mother of an 18-year-old man accused of beating Christian Negron with a metal baseball bat until comatose tipped police to his involvement, court documents show.
Glenda Torres went to police Saturday and told them that her son Juan Melendez of 51 Osgood St. in Methuen confessed to his crime and threatened to kill himself before going to jail.
"She did the right thing when she became aware her son was involved in this," police Chief John Romero said of Torres. "She felt we needed to know. She felt obligated to tell us."
Negron, 26, was attacked Thursday night outside a Green Street apartment building. Police said Melendez and a man identified yesterday as Alexander Pardella, 18, struck Negron several times in the head with a metal baseball bat before stealing a cell phone and $10 from his pocket.
Negron's girlfriend, Alba Lopez, 23, and friend Alejandro Moreta said Negron is in critical condition in a Boston hospital, which they declined to identify. Moreta said Negron works as a supervisor at a Middleton machine shop.
"Right now, he is unconscious and unable to speak," Lopez said. "He has gone through two surgeries and is expected to undergo two or three more surgeries. We don't know how the attack has affected his brain."
Police are now trying to find Pardella. He will face the same criminal charges as Melendez — armed robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon, and assault with intent to murder. Police said Pardella has lived at various Lawrence addresses.
During an interview with police after his arrest Saturday, Melendez admitted to beating Negron and told police he had been drinking and snorting cocaine before the incident. He told police he traded the stolen cell phone for 28 grams of marijuana, police said.
Torres told police her son was not in good mental health and has been hanging around with a gang from Tremont Street and smoking a lot of marijuana.
While Melendez was being arraigned yesterday at Lawrence District Court, police were searching catch basins for the bat used in the attack on Negron. With help from the Department of Public Works, police checked catch basins in the areas of Green, Tremont and Cross streets.
Department of Public Works employees David Mazzaglia and Anthony Matteo lifted the heavy iron grates off the sewers and used both shovels and a hydraulic device to scoop out soil, sediment and garbage below. Several pieces of metal were found in the sewers but nothing resembling a bat.
Immediately after the assault, police seized a bat from the nearby area. They are now having that bat tested to see if it was the weapon used to assault Negron, Romero said.
Melendez was ordered held without bail until he could be assigned a court-appointed lawyer today.
