NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (WPRI) — Investigators have identified a suspect more than three decades after a Newport, Rhode Island, man was murdered in Massachusetts.
The Bristol County District Attorney’s Office said 20-year-old Brent Davis was shot and killed during a drug-related dispute at a housing complex in New Bedford on Oct. 25, 1991.
Witnesses identified the killer as a man named “Bobby” and helped police create a composite sketch of the suspect, but the DA’s office said the investigation eventually went cold.
That was until the cold case unit at the DA’s office reopened the investigation in 2020. After reviewing reports from 1991 and locating witnesses, they learned “Bobby” was an alias, and the suspect was actually Claudio Jorge.
Investigators tracked down a close relative of the suspect who previously lived in New Bedford. They learned Jorge was originally from the Dominican Republic and he fled to New York after Davis’ death.
Jorge had a lengthy criminal record in New York that included drug and weapons offenses dating back to 1983, according to the DA’s office. He was eventually deported to the Dominican Republican.
He was killed during a robbery in the Dominican Republic in 2006.
Once Jorge was identified as the suspect, investigators were able to confirm that he was the one who had killed Davis. Because he is dead, there will be no prosecution.
“This case further shows our office does not give up on solving cold cases and will continue to put resources into investigations of cold case homicides,” Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn III said in a statement. “I’d like to thank Trooper Kate Sullivan for her efforts in the case that brought closure to the victim’s family after all these years.”