A Mt. Ararat High School graduate from Bowdoinham has been charged in Massachusetts with beating a man and dismembering his body.
Carlos Colina Jr., 32, now of Cambridge, is being held in a Massachusetts jail on $1 million bail after police discovered a human torso in a dufflebag Saturday morning and traced it to Colina. In a trash room near Colina’s apartment, police found other body parts, including a head.
When they confronted Colina, they said he reeked of cleaning chemicals.
Colina was arraigned Monday on charges of assault and battery causing serious bodily injury and improper disposal of a body. The Massachusetts medical examiner has not yet ruled on the cause of death for Jonathan Camilien, 26, of Somerville, and is awaiting the results of blood tests. Authorities say Camilien and Colina knew each other.
Colina has not been charged with killing Camilien, although prosecutors say they do not believe anyone else was involved in the crime.
“This was a gruesome discovery,” Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said in a statement. “Detectives are continuing to analyze evidence and awaiting information from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner so that we may determine if additional charges are warranted.”
Colina was an honor student at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham from 1998 to 2001, according to Portland Press Herald archives, earning high honors his junior year and graduating in 2001. Mt. Ararat High School is a regional school that includes students from Topsham, Bowdoin, Bowdoinham and Harpswell.
The school would not release information about Colina.
In the school yearbook from 2001, there was little information about Colina or his interests. While most of his classmates had information next to their pictures that detailed accomplishments or made cryptic references to friends and events of their high school years, Colina’s space was blank.
Colina is believed to have spent at least part of his childhood living in a two-story house in Bowdoinham that sits back from a rural road and is shielded by dense trees.
One neighbor who answered the door on Tuesday said she didn’t recognize the name and, when shown a picture of Colina, didn’t recognize him either.
Colina’s criminal record in Maine includes three incidents.
On May, 25, 2001, Colina was charged by Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s deputies with criminal trespass, cruelty to animals and indecent conduct. The prosecutor ultimately dropped the criminal trespass and indecent conduct charges and Colina pleaded guilty that August to the animal cruelty charge and was given an eight-month suspended sentence with a year of probation.
On June 10, 2001, while those charges were still pending, he was charged with violating bail conditions, and on June 19, 2011, he was charged by sheriff’s deputies with misdemeanor assault and sentenced to 90 days, all suspended, with a year of probation.
He was ordered to spend eight days in Sagadahoc County Jail as a result of all three cases.
When he was arrested Saturday, Colina had an outstanding assault charge pending in Massachusetts.
The Boston Globe reported that Colina was kicked out of the Cambridge Athletic Club after allegedly beating up another customer in November, according to court records. Following a dispute about using workout equipment, Colina pinned the patron against the mirror and pummeled him, the Globe said, quoting court records. A witness told the Globe that afterward, Colina began celebrating, saying, “I’m a beast! I’m a beast!”
Colina is unemployed, police said. His Facebook page shows a picture of him flexing in a mirror and several of his friends appear to be involved in body building. Colina placed second in a bench press and dead-lift competition held by a trainer at the Cambridge Athletic Club, the Boston Globe reported.
Police became aware of Camilien’s death after a security guard at the pharmaceutical company Biogen noticed a suspicious dufflebag near the company’s property, according to a police affidavit. A bomb dog was called in but did not indicate the presence of explosives, but did get agitated and intent on the bag’s contents. An officer opened the bag and saw a man’s torso, clad in boxer shorts, with its lower legs, arms and head removed, the police affidavit said.
Police were able to view security video from Biogen which showed a man – later identified as Colina – depositing the dufflebag then walking back to the apartment building. Police went to the building and in a trash room on the third floor – the floor on which Colina lives – police found the remaining body parts in individual bags in a recycling bucket. They also found clothing, a smashed cellphone and cut up credit and identification cards.
They could hear a vacuum cleaner running inside Colina’s apartment.
Police confronted Colina as he left the apartment. They noted that Colina had scrapes on his forehead between his eyes, on his arm, on the right side of his neck and on his back.
Inside the apartment, inside a trash can, police found a handsaw with a broken handle and reddish brown stains on the blade, a piece of rope and cleaning supplies. Colina’s bathtub showed tool marks and there were reddish brown stains under a portion of carpet, according to a police report.
The medical examiner determined that Camilien had been hit on the side of the head in front and behind the ear and found potential bruising to the left side of the brain, fractured cartilage in the neck and blood specks in the eyes, which can sometimes indicate strangulation or some other trauma.
Police reviewed security video and saw that Colina and a thin man, believed to be Camilien, left the building together at 7:52 p.m. Friday and returned an hour later carrying what appeared to be grocery bags.
A neighbor told police yelling was heard coming from Colina’s apartment at about 9:15 p.m. At 10:15 p.m., Colina and the man leave again and return an hour later. Camilien was not seen again.
Then Colina is seen leaving the building at 4:18 a.m. Saturday carrying the dufflebag. He left again at 10:40 a.m., returning half an hour later carrying two shopping bags.
Police would not say what they believe is the motive for the crime.
Colina is scheduled to make his next court appearance April 14.
Staff Writer Eric Russell contributed to this report.
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