Two days after he was discharged from a local mental-health treatment center, a Freetown man with a history of violent felony charges and convictions was arraigned for the murder of his live-in girlfriend.
Prosecutors in Bristol County Fall River District Court on Wednesday, Sept. 20, told Judge Thomas Barrett that 54-year-old Matthew Lucas likely used a hammer to kill his girlfriend, Heidi Chace, earlier that morning after a night of smoking crack cocaine and drinking alcohol.
Chace, 44, was found dead with “significant trauma” to her face inside a house at 92 Chace St. where she and Lucas had been cohabitating. Another couple were also living together in the duplex residence.
Police responded to the bloody scene at 4:24 a.m. after the other male resident called 911 to say that Chace appeared to be deceased and was “cold to the touch.”
But police say instead of immediately contacting them, the man instead first called his brother and then went to a neighbor’s house to get cigarettes. It’s not clear how much time elapsed before he alerted Freetown police.
All four residents and a fifth person had allegedly been doing drugs and drinking inside the house before the visitor left the premises. Lucas and Chace also at one point reportedly went into the adjacent Chace Cemetery before coming back to the house at 92 Chace St.
The male resident who eventually called cops stated that Lucas during the evening had become “increasingly paranoid” and was grabbing Chace by her hair and neck, according to assistant district attorney Caleb Weiner, who asked that Lucas be held without bail.
It took local and state police four hours but they eventually found Lucas, whose hands, they said, were noticeably bloody, hiding in the backyard shed of his brother John’s house on Burns Lane.
Police arrested the diminutive suspect without incident. He was later ordered held without bail by Judge Barrett. Lucas, during his arraignment, was represented by Fall River defense attorney Kenneth van Colen.
He’s due back in court for a pretrial hearing on Oct. 20.
Weiner told the judge that Lucas has a 24-page board of probation history rife with “violent felonies” and that four separate women at various times had taken out restraining orders against him.
He said Lucas was previously diagnosed as being schizophrenic and had a substance-abuse problem.
Weiner also noted that Lucas had an open court case involving an assault that was scheduled for jury trial in court the previous week but that Lucas failed to appear.
Two days later, on Sept. 14, he was admitted to a local “community behavioral health center” that provides “adult community crisis services” under the auspices of the non-profit Child and Family Services.
He reportedly was released on Sept. 18 and two days later allegedly bludgeoned Chace to death.
The 2022 cemetery incident
Lucas was arrested by Freetown police on Sept. 20, 2022 — exactly one year before Chace was found murdered in the house at 92 Chace St. – after he allegedly threatened to kill and spat on his mother’s adult son and his 8-months-pregnant girlfriend.
The Freetown police report indicates the incident occurred that afternoon inside the Chace Cemetery where Lucas – whose driver’s license had previously been suspended – had driven Chace’s pickup truck with her as his passenger.
Two 911 calls came into police dispatch. The first was from Chace, who said she mistakenly dialed and told responding officers that even though Lucas’s nephew struck her truck with his vehicle she didn’t want to press charges.
Chace said that she and Lucas were in the cemetery visiting his mother’s grave when they encountered the other couple. She also claimed that she, and not Lucas, had been driving.
Shortly thereafter another 911 call came in from the pregnant girlfriend of Lucas’s nephew.
The couple told responding officers that Lucas was driving Chace’s pickup truck and that he had a switchblade knife in his hand when he threatened to kill them both and spat in the face of the pregnant woman – who subsequently was taken to a hospital after saliva from Lucas’s mouth got into her eyes.
The couple said they were concerned about the saliva because of Lucas’s past history of illicit drug use.
Lucas’s nephew told cops that his truck struck the side of Chace’s truck as he and his girlfriend hurriedly left the cemetery during the encounter, but only because they were partially blocked in by Lucas.
Lucas allegedly admitted to police that he yelled at his nephew and his girlfriend because his nephew’s mother had failed to pay back $3,500 she borrowed from Chace while he was serving time in jail.
Lucas, however, denied having a knife, which police were unable to locate, He also denied spitting on anyone.
Lucas’s nephew also told police that his uncle had been hounding his mother with countless, harassing voicemails demanding money.
A police officer then informed him that his mother recently had come into the police station and played several threatening voicemails with a male’s voice, which he recognized as being that of Lucas.
Police said Chace that afternoon eventually admitted that she had unsuccessfully tried to convince Lucas not to drive her truck. She allegedly also admitted that the two of them were once again using crack cocaine.
Lucas that day was charged with two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon; assault and battery on a pregnant person; one count of assault and battery; and two counts of threatening to commit a crime.
He also was issued a citation for driving on a suspended license.
The police report states that a bail commissioner via telephone initially set bail at $25,000. Lucas was then transported to Ash Street Jail in New Bedford to await arraignment.
The next day Lucas was arraigned in district court and released after posting the $2,000 bail that had been imposed by the judge.