A Barnstable County grand jury has indicted 29-year-old Malik Franklin on manslaughter charges in connection with the deaths of two men found unresponsive in the Englewood Beach parking lot in Yarmouth on Oct. 27, 2024. Authorities identified the victims as Dean Monterio and Lucas Escabi. Both were taken to Cape Cod Hospital, where they were pronounced dead. At a subsequent hearing in Barnstable Superior Court, Franklin was ordered held on $100,000 bail.
According to NBC Boston, the Cape & Islands District Attorney’s Office says prosecutors believe the men died of overdoses. Investigators say surveillance video recovered during the probe appears to show Monterio and Escabi getting into Franklin’s car and using drugs in the backseat. Prosecutors told the grand jury that the footage then shows the pair getting out of the vehicle, collapsing in the parking lot, and Franklin driving away, returning, walking up to each man, and then leaving the area again.
Yarmouth police first responded to calls about two unresponsive men in the Englewood Beach parking lot and provided first aid at the scene before firefighters took both men to Cape Cod Hospital, where they were later pronounced dead, as reported by WCVB. The Yarmouth Police Department and Massachusetts State Police continued the investigation in the weeks following the October incident.
Franklin was arraigned Wednesday in Barnstable Superior Court and, according to prosecutors, was ordered held on $100,000 bail. It was not immediately clear whether he had secured legal representation, and the Cape & Islands District Attorney’s Office did not provide additional comment beyond the indictment, NBC Boston reported.
What prosecutors say
Prosecutors told the grand jury that Monterio placed multiple phone calls to Franklin earlier that night and that the three men first met in Hyannis before returning to Englewood Beach, according to the indictment. The District Attorney’s Office is leaning heavily on phone records and surveillance footage as core pieces of evidence as the case heads toward pretrial motions and a potential jury trial.
Statewide overdose context
The indictment lands in the middle of a volatile street-drug landscape across Massachusetts. Recent state health data indicate that fentanyl is present in the vast majority of opioid-related overdose deaths, even as overall opioid fatalities have ticked downward in provisional counts. Public health officials warn that fentanyl’s frequent mixing with other substances, along with the emergence of drugs like xylazine, keeps the risk of a deadly overdose high, particularly in coastal and southeastern areas of the state, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
What’s next
Franklin remains presumed innocent as the case proceeds in Barnstable Superior Court. Upcoming court dates and filings will dictate the next moves in the prosecution and defense. Authorities have said that anyone with information about the Oct. 27, 2024 incident should contact Yarmouth police, as noted in earlier local reports.
