Man gets life without parole in 1988 killing and sexual assault of woman in Boston

BOSTON (AP) — A man was sentenced to life in prison without parole in the killing of a woman whose body was found in the basement of a Boston building more than three decades ago.

DNA evidence linked Carl Vega, 61, to the 1988 killing of 21-year-old Judy Chamberlain, prosecutors said. A maintenance worker discovered her body in a basement well. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted.

“She was beautiful, loved, and still is,” Chamberlain’s brother, John Olson, said Tuesday in Suffolk County Superior Court before Vega was sentenced. “Judy remains in our mind and hearts until we meet again.”

Vega was convicted of first-degree murder in June. His lawyer, Timothy Bradl, didn’t immediately respond to a Wednesday email seeking comment.

Vega, who went by several names, was identified as a suspect in 2011 after a federal database matched his DNA profile to evidence from Chamberlain’s killing, according to the district attorney’s office. However, prosecutors at the time did not think they had enough evidence to bring charges.

Vega was required to submit a DNA sample in 1990 after he was convicted of rape in a 1987 attack on an elderly woman in Revere. He was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, and then prosecutors successfully petitioned to have him civilly committed in 2008.

Investigators collected new evidence in the Chamberlain case and a grand jury returned an indictment against Vega in 2021 for her killing.