What to KnowA Massachusetts State Police sergeant and three troopers are being charged with involuntary manslaughter and causing serious bodily injury in the death of Trooper Enrique Delgado-Garcia.Delgado-Garcia was hospitalized Sept. 12, 2024, and died at the hospital the next day after participating in a boxing training exercise at the Mass. State Police academy in New Braintree.His family and Massachusetts State Police released reacted to the findings, which came after a nine-month grand jury investigation.Independent investigator David Meier noted that there was no evidence that Delgado-Garcia was targeted or “that anyone — academy staff, fellow trainees or any others — harbored any personal animosity toward” him.
Watch the announcement in the video player atop this article.
Four staff members of the Massachusetts State Police Academy are facing charges, including involuntary manslaughter, in the 2024 death of Trooper Enrique Delgado-Garcia during training, an independent investigator announced Monday.
Sgt. Jennifer Penton and troopers Edwin Rodriguez, David Montanez and Casey Lamonte are being charged with involuntary manslaughter and causing serious bodily injury to a person participating in a training program involving physical exercise, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office said following a news conference in Boston.
Penton, who supervised the others, also faces a perjury charge — outside investigator David Meier said she gave false testimony to a special statewide grand jury he’d asked to be empaneled.
“In the days and weeks prior to Sept. 12, 2024, members of the state police training academy committed a series of wanton and reckless acts in connection with various defensive tactics and physical confrontation training exercises conducted at the academy,” Meier said.
Four Massachusetts State Police Academy staff members are facing charges in the 2024 death of Trooper Enrique Delgado Garcia, an outside investigator appointed by Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell announced Monday.
Read Meier’s full statement as prepared here.
Delgado-Garcia was hospitalized Sept. 12, 2024, and died at the hospital the next day after participating in a boxing training exercise at the academy in New Braintree. He was 25. His family had been waiting for answers on what happened to him, and Meier acknowledged their patience in his remarks.
“They feel grateful that somebody is being held to account,” said Louis Aloise, an attorney who is representing Delgado-Garcia’s family.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the officers facing charges had attorneys who could speak to them. Meier said the officers wouldn’t be arrested, but were being summonsed to court instead.
An independent investigator was brought in last year to look into the death of the Massachusetts State Police trooper, who had previously worked as a victim witness advocate for the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office, which would normally handle the investigation.
He noted that there was no evidence that Delgado-Garcia was targeted or “that anyone — academy staff, fellow trainees or any others — harbored any personal animosity toward” him.
Meier said that the grand jury heard testimony from more than 150 witnesses over nine months and reviewed nearly 350 physical exhibits. The investigation found that Delgado-Garcia had “concussion-like symptoms” after an unsupervised boxing training session, then suffered “multiple blunt-force injuries to the head and massive brain bleeding” during a match the next day.
The culture at the police academy has faced scrutiny, even as few details about the investigation have been made public. In May, state police announced a series of reforms and noted that an outside agency was being brought in for further assessment.
Mass. State Police Col. Geoffrey Noble committed Monday that the department would continue working with the unfolding legal process.
“Today is a difficult and somber day for the Massachusetts State Police as we continue to understand the events that led to the tragic death of Trooper Enrique Delgado Garcia. As a law enforcement agency, we respect the legal process and have fully cooperated with the independent investigation while remaining focused on our mission and continuing the important work of keeping Massachusetts communities safe,” he said in a statement.
The president of the agency’s main union, the State Police Association of Massachusetts, shared a statement noting the organization “continues to mourn the tragic loss of” Delgado-Garcia while emphasizing that the officers charged are entitled to the presumption of innocence.
“The Association stands firmly behind its members and intends to vigorously defend them against these charges as we continue to work collaboratively with the Department to strengthen and enhance training standards, ensuring Troopers are fully prepared to meet the complex and demanding realities of the job,” SPAM President Brian Williams said.
An amended death certificate for the trooper says his death was caused by fatal complications from “blunt impact injuries of the head” sustained during training. Delgado-Garcia had “complications of intracranial hemorrhages” caused by those injuries, according to the document, which was amended Aug. 28 — 11 months after it was initially recorded — and signed by Worcester’s city clerk on the following day. The manner of death is listed as accidental.
Massachusetts State Police Colonel Geoffrey Noble sat down with NBC10 Boston as the state police gets ready to graduate its 91st academy class. We asked him about everything from the scandal surrounding former Trooper Michael Proctor, to the death of Trooper Enrique Delgado-Garcia, to his approach to accountability in the department.
The boxing program at the academy was suspended, and state police launched an independent assessment of the academy, including training methods, attrition and injury rates, injury prevention, fitness standards, organizational culture, leadership and alignment with national standards.
Who is investigating Enrique Delgado-Garcia’s death?
Campbell announced the independent investigation after Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. recused his office from investigating, since Delgado-Garcia previously worked in the office as a victim witness advocate.
Meier served as chief of homicide prosecutions in Suffolk County for 12 years. As special counsel to former Gov. Deval Patrick, he oversaw the investigation of misconduct at the Hinton state drug laboratory.
For the past year, he has been leading a team of experienced law enforcement officials, whom he says have no past or present affiliation with Massachusetts State Police, to investigate the circumstances surrounding Delgado-Garcia’s death.
In a release earlier this year, he wrote the following information about each team member:
Lisa Holmes is a retired Superintendent at the Boston Police Department, where she was a Supervisor in the department’s Bureau of Professional Development and the Boston Police Training Academy.
Thomas Larned is a former FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge at the FBI Boston Field Office, now managing his own investigative firm.
Gretchen Lundgren is a former Assistant District Attorney in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office and a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office in Boston, now with the Mission Advisory Investigative Group.
CourtesyCourtesy
Gretchen Lundgren
Kimberly Lawrence is a former senior Supervisory Special Agent for the FBI in Worcester, now a security specialist with the Edward Davis Investigative Company.
Norma Ayala Leong is a former Deputy Superintendent with the Boston Police, where she worked as a Supervisor at the Boston Police Training Academy and in the Bureau of Professional Development.
Boston Police DepartmentBoston Police Department
Norma Ayala Leong
Paul Joyce is a former Superintendent at the Boston Police Department, where he supervised the Anti-Gang Unit and Criminal Investigations Bureau, and is presently an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Salve Regina University.
Robert Harrington is a former Superintendent with the Boston Police, where he was a Supervisor in the Homicide Unit and the Bureau of Internal Affairs.
Edith Ayuso is a former Victim Witness Advocate in the Homicide Unit of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office and is working with me during our regular meetings and conversations with the family of Mr. Delgado-Garcia.
CourtesyCourtesy
Edith Ayuso
Invoices the NBC10 Boston Investigators obtained show this investigation had cost the commonwealth $416,924.80 as of Sept. 12, 2025. Most details of the investigation are redacted from those records.