By Lisa E. CrowleyBrocktonPost
BROCKTON—Accused triple-murderer Donald Rudolph, an 18-year-old with a history of paranoid schizophrenia was placed on probation Sept. 14 by Quincy District Court officials after shooting two women with a BB gun from the yard of his father’s rooming house in Quincy.
Today, two months later, Rudolph has been held without bail and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital after prosecutors and court documents shaped a story of mental illness, violence, robbery and drug use leading up to last Thursday night’s grisly murders of Rudolph’s 50-year-old mother Paula, his 24-year-old sister Caylin and Paula Rudolph’s 52-year-old boyfriend Frederick Medina.
A plea of not guilty was entered on Rudolph’s behalf by attorney John Darrell, who told reporters outside the court house his client does not remember the killings and had to be told why he was appearing in court.
Darrell said the case could not proceed until Rudolph understood what had happened and what he was being accused of.
“He suffers from visual and auditory hallucinations and he’s having them now,” Darrell said.
Assistant District Attorney Craig Kowalski told a courtroom filled with anguished and audibly horrified family and friends of the Rudolphs and Medina,that Medina and sister Caylin suffered from multiple stab wounds.
Kowalski said Medina’s throat was cut and his body was covered with several dozen Beanie Bag stuffed animals—one which was crammed into Medina’s mouth.
While Rudolph’s lawyer told reporters Rudolph does not remember anything of last Thursday night, Nov. 10, reports from police who arrived at the scene and found the bodies tell a different story and indicate Rudolph attempted to clean-up the crimes.
“I’m f*****d, I’m f****d, “ Rudolph allegedly told Weymouth Police at about 8 p.m. when police found him trying to crawl out of a basement window after a neighbor reported suspicious activity at the house at 10 Upland Road.
Police spotted a silhouette moving through the house in a “tiptoe” fashion and while they called for the person inside to come to the door, Rudolph was caught up to his “torso” in a basement window trying to escape.
Rudolph was asked by police to come out of the house.
When Rudolph did, police found his hands were covered in blood.
Officers and detectives did not yet know the hollow and dark-eyed young man they were placing in handcuffs had brutally murdered his mother, her live-in boyfriend and his sister.
Rudolph was asked what he meant by his swear-filled comments.
Rudolph allegedly said, “you’ll see when you go in there.”
Weymouth officers and detectives began to search the two-story bungalow, which is tucked into a close knit Weymouth neighborhood near Whitman’s Pond.
An officer entered the kitchen and found a hammer and knife covered in blood on the kitchen table.
The instruments of death were partially covered with a place mat wrapped around them.
The officer then went to a doorway leading from the kitchen to the living room and while shining a flashlight in the dark house, abruptly stopped at what he saw.
Frederick Medina was found lying on his back with a slice wound across his neck and multiple stab wounds to his body.
On the floor to the left of Medina’s head, covered in a pool of blood, were several silver knives.
A Beanie Bag stuffed animal was in Medina’s mouth and his body was covered with several dozen of the toys.
It was then the officer warned other police they were in a crime scene.
A search ensued for Paula Rudolph who the neighbor had told police was likely in the house.
Officers found two rooms upstairs that had been locked.
Police kicked in the doors, but found only a burning candle in one of the rooms—both described as female’s bedrooms.
Police found other rooms with locked doors on the main floor, but no Paula Rudolph.
In the basement, where Rudolph had tried to escape through a window, Paula Rudolph still was not found, but police noted the stairs to the basement were extremely slippery and were covered with a liquid substance described as smelling like Pledge furniture polish.
With the house searched and still no Paula Rudolph, officers headed to a one-car garage at the rear of the house.
Officers saw one door to the garage. It had blood on the threshold.
Police tried to open the door, but it would only move a few inches because something was leaning against it.
An officer pushed his head in through the crack and realized a body was blocking the door.
Police entered the garage through a window to avoid harming evidence at the door.
They found Paula Rudolph dead against the door. She had been bludgeoned to death.
Not far away was Paula Rudolph’s daughter and Donald Rudolph’s sister Caylin, stabbed and beaten to death.
It is unclear where Paula and Caylin Rudolph may have been killed, although Kowalski said mother and daughter were killed before Medina.
Police reports note blood and a spray bottle of what appeared to be cleaning fluid were found on the outside of a bulkhead.
There was blood on the ground outside the bulkhead door and drag marks leading through the grass and dirt from the bulkhead to the garage door.
While family, friends and neighbors have said Donald Rudolph’s decline has been taking place for years-- including a stint living with former New England Patriots player Ronnie Lippett, whose jaw Rudolph reportedly broke when Rudolph was living with Lippett as part of a Lutheran social service program—Rudolph’s troubles with the law took a turn in April 2011, when he was charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon when a Quincy woman contacted police reporting she had been shot in the thigh by a BB while walking near a rooming house on Washington Street where Rudolph was living with his father, Donald.
Officers searched the porch where Rudolph lived and found a BB, or pellet rifle with a scope on the porch.
The next day, April 7, a day after interviewing two BB-gun shot victims, witnesses, and Rudolph, Rudolph was asked to Quincy Police headquarters for an interview, where police reports indicate after being read his Miranda rights and signing a waiver, Rudolph admitted to intentionally shooting the two women after more than 2 hours of questioning.
During the interrogation, Rudolph stated he was not on any drugs or alcohol.
Rudolph told police he bought the BB gun at Dick’s Sporting Goods in Brockton and used a gift card.
The two assault charges, felonies, carry a sentence of up to 2 ½ years in Plymouth County House of Correction.
He was arraigned in May and released on his personal recognizance.
Rudolph received a suspended sentence and was placed on probation beginning Sept. 14. The conditions of Rudolph’s probation included enrolling in a mental health program and complying with recommendations from that program. He was also ordered to take prescribed medications, not possess any weapons and have no contact with the victims.
However, Rudolph’s freedom on bail for the BB gun incidents and his probation were threatened on October 13, 2011 when a complaint was filed by Weymouth Police after a neighbor--Beverly McDermott, the same neighbor who called Thursday night to alert police to what turned out to be the triple murder--reported on Sept. 3 her house had been burglarized and jewelry, foreign currency, cash, cuff links and a pain-itch medication had been stolen from the house.
Witnesses pointed to Donald Rudolph as one of a ring of culprits from the Weymouth neighborhood. Over the next few weeks, police contacted Paula Rudolph who told police her son suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and is not taking his medications.
Paula Rudolph told police Donald was living with his father, her ex-husband, in Quincy and a backpack Donald left at her house at 10 Upland Road was not hers and she did not want it on her property. The backpack contained a BB-firing pistol and a container of BBs. Police confiscated the backpack as evidence.
Also, Paula Rudolph, according to court documents, had talked with her ex-husband about their son and the ex-husband affirmed Rudolph had arrived at the rooming house with coins, foreign currency and other items.
The father also told Paula Rudolph Donald “took” 23 klonopin (sic) pills.
Eventually police met with Rudolph’s father Donald Sr., at his rooming house in Quincy. The father said the teenager sometimes stays with him and was there when police arrived. The father let police in and through his efforts was able to talk his reluctant son into letting police look in a closet in the room.
Police reports show the jewelry, coins, foreign currency and cuff links McDermott reported stolen were found in the closet.
Also found was a baseball autographed by Red Sox players, and in a container a small marijuana cigarette and 23 klonopins (sic).
Rudolph was charged with receiving, buying or aiding in the concealment of stolen property not exceeding $250—a felony with a sentence of up to 2 ½ years in Plymouth House of Correction, a $250 fine or both.
The complaint was issued October 23 and court documents show court officials filed motions to charge Rudolph with probation violation and possible revocation of his bail.
Rudolph was scheduled to appear in court for an arraignment Tuesday, Nov. 29 on the stolen property charges.
Instead, Rudolph is being held at Bridgewater State Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and faces life in prison for the murders of his mother, his mother’s boyfriend and his sister.
He returns to court on the murder charges Dec. 2.
(Photos from top: Rudolph booking photo; Paula Rudolph's house at 10 Upland Road; Caylin Rudolph's photo from her Facebook page; Family photo from surviving sister Brittany's Facebook page; garage where Paula and Caylin Rudolph were found by police)
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