WALTHAM, MA — A man has been convicted in connection with a string of unprovoked attacks that occurred throughout the city in November 2020.
Clauvens Janvier, 29, of Waltham, pleaded guilty this week to twelve separate assaults that occurred in public areas over a 30-day period.
The defendant randomly and unprovoked attacked twelve different male victims who were strangers to him.
During several of the attacks, Janvier used a weapon including a machete, and in one assault he also used a firearm.
On Dec. 11, 2020, Janvier was arrested and charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery in connection with an incident that occurred at a parking garage on Turner Street on Nov. 11, 2020.
In that incident, the defendant allegedly physically assaulted an 18-year-old male and struck him with the non-blade side of a machete.
An investigation conducted by Waltham Police, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office and Massachusetts State Police included reviewing surveillance video, forensic testing, the execution of several search warrants, interviewing victims and witnesses and working with the FBI CAST (Cellular Analysis Survey Team).
Investigators were able to place the defendant in the area of the assaults and determined that he was responsible for multiple attacks that had recently occurred across the city.
Janvier was charged with attacks on 11 additional male victims that caused serious injuries in numerous cases.
These attacks include the first reported assault at Gardencrest Apartments on Middlesex Circle; an assault on a United States Postal Service mail carrier; and several incidents where victims lost consciousness and required hospitalization.
Janvier was also charged with firearm offenses in an attack on a male victim that occurred on Nov. 24, 2020, where the defendant allegedly fired a gun at a motor vehicle leaving a Willow Street gas station after he had a verbal altercation with the man in the gas station parking lot.
On Nov. 18, a Middlesex Superior Court jury convicted the defendant of two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm, two counts of unlawful possession of a loaded firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building, assault by means of a dangerous weapon, and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony in connection with the Nov. 24, 2020 incident.
On Jan. 5, the defendant pleaded guilty to the remaining incidents, five counts of assault and battery by means of dangerous weapon, three counts of assault and battery, three counts of assault and battery by means of dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, and one count of carrying a dangerous weapon, in connection with the other eleven attacks.
The defendant was sentenced to 14 years to 14 years and one day on the three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury; eight to ten years on the five counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon; and three years of probation consecutive to the prison time on the assault and battery and carrying a dangerous weapon charges.
He was also sentenced to a concurrent sentence of seven to nine years for possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony; four to five years for two counts of possession of a firearm; two and a half years House of Correction for the two counts of possession of a loaded firearm; three months House of Correction for one count of discharging a firearm; and three years of probation from and after for one count of assault by means of a dangerous weapon.
The case was investigated by Waltham Police, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, Massachusetts State Police Detectives assigned to that office, Massachusetts State Police, the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab and Massachusetts State Police Crime Scene Services.
