Community Corner

Health Aide Who Murdered Westwood Resident Denied Parole

A parole board denied the claim of Martine Pressat, who murdered a Westwood resident in 1997.

The office of Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey provided the following

Martine Pressat, who beat retired psychiatrist John Weil to death in his apartment in Westwood’s Fox Hill Village in December of 1997, has been denied parole. She will not be eligible to reapply for parole for another 5 years, according Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey.  

Dr. Weil had practiced in Brookline and was the author of several books on child psychiatry before moving to the Fox Hill Village retirement community in Westwood with his ailing wife, Geraldine, a retired psychologist. Weil was 77, frail and experiencing Parkinson’s disease by 1997, and Pressat was one of several home health aides employed to assist the couple, Morrissey said.

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“Evidence presented at trial, by then Assistant District Attorney Anthony Gemma, showed that Weil discovered that Pressat had been writing herself unauthorized checks from the Weil’s account prior to the murder. She killed Dr. Weil shortly after he had discovered the thefts in a meeting with his accountant, apparently when he confronted her with the thefts. She was also found guilty of several larceny charges,” Morrissey said. The jury found Pressat guilty of murder in the second degree in 2000, which allows defendants to apply for parole after 15 years of incarceration – including time spent held on bail pending trial.

The parole board heard Pressat’s petition October 16, 2012, and heard opposing testimony from District Attorney Morrissey’s office and Weil’s relatives. The board issued its denial on Feb. 19, 2013.

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“Based on the defendant’s continued denial of culpability, her continued insistence that she was defending herself against this infirm, elderly man – although the physical evidence forcefully dispels that – as well as other factors, I think it is clear that the Parole Board has acted wisely here,” District Attorney Morrissey said.


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