The Massachusetts Appeals Court has upheld the convictions of a man who brutally beat and stabbed the mother of one of his former classmates inside her Brockton home in 2013, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz’s office said in a statement Wednesday.
Brian Vines, also known as Brian Davis, 51, of Brockton, was convicted in 2016 on charges alleging he used a gun to beat the woman, 62, inside her Brookfield Avenue home before stabbing her several times in the back and throat during an attempted robbery, the statement said.
Vines was sentenced to serve life in prison on one count each of assault, armed assault with intent to rob a person 60 years or older, assault and battery on an elder causing serious bodily injury, armed robbery and aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
On Tuesday, May 12, after more than a decade of legal proceedings, the state Appeals Court affirmed Vines’ convictions and denied his motion for a new trial.
“I applaud our state Appeals Court for their work on this matter, and I’m grateful to them for keeping Brian Vines in prison, where he belongs,” Cruz said. “Vines spent decades preying on vulnerable women and the community is far safer with him incarcerated.”
Vines’ defense attorney Paul C. Brennan told The Enterprise Thursday he is planning to file a new motion in court challenging the ruling.
Defense attorney Paul C. Brennan argued for his client, Brian Vines, 51, of Brockton, in front of the Massachusetts Appeals Court on Jan. 6, 2026.
Brockton man accused of ‘savagely attacking’ 62-year-old
On June 4, 2013, Vines attempted to enter the victim’s home on Brookfield Avenue under the pretext he wanted to contact her son, a childhood friend and former classmate. When the victim turned around to give him her son’s number, Vines attempted to rob her at gunpoint, according to the DA’s office.
The victim gave Vines the $2 in cash she had on hand, as well as her ATM card and PIN number. Vines then used a weapon to repeatedly beat and stab her before leaving her for dead in a pool of blood on her kitchen floor, the DA’s office said.
Despite suffering serious injuries, including a foot-long laceration to her back, a slit throat and several fractures to her face, the victim managed to crawl to a phone and call the police, according to court records. She identified her attacker by name.
A 62-year-old woman was transported to Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital after police say she was stabbed in the throat by a man who broke into her home on Brookfield Drive in Brockton on Tuesday, June 4, 2013.
Vines was arrested the following day in Raynham after police were able to track him using the victim’s debit card. DNA testing confirmed the victim’s blood was also present on Vines’ shirt, shorts and sneakers, court records show.
Prior to the 2013 assault, Vines had served a seven-year sentence on charges including rape, kidnapping, armed robbery and assault and battery for separate incidents in Brockton and Whitman in 2001, the DA’s office told The Enterprise in 2013.
The case went to trial in 2016 and after five days of proceedings, a jury deliberated just over 12 hours before finding Vines guilty of the charges. Because Vines was a habitual offender, he was sentenced to life in prison, which was later amended to no more than life but not less than 25 years.
Brian Vines, 32, of Brockton, is shown in Brockton Superior Court on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016.
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“Mr. Vines savagely attacked this unsuspecting, trusting woman, took her ATM card and left her to die on her own kitchen floor,” Cruz said in a written statement in 2016. “On the stand, the defendant could not recall what happened that day, but the victim remembered and recited every horrific detail to the jury.”
Vines appealed his case, claiming, among other arguments, that the trial judge abused his discretion by not excusing a juror who he alleges revealed racial bias against Black men and that his legal counsel was ineffective for not attempting to excuse that juror, court records show.
After years of denied appeals, in January, Vines’ latest defense motion came before the Massachusetts Appeals Court, which concluded in a May 12 memorandum that the trial judge correctly determined that the juror in question was impartial and denied his request for a new trial.
Reporter Amelia Stern can be reached by email at astern@enterprisenews.com. Follow her on X at @ameliarstern1.
This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: MA Appeals Court upholds convictions in 2013 Brockton stabbing attack
