Suspect in killing of Boston doctors arraigned from hospital on murder charges

The suspect in the brutal slaying of two engaged doctors at their penthouse apartment in Boston was arraigned on murder charges from his hospital bed Monday afternoon, as officials investigated any relationship between the alleged killer and the dead couple.

Drs. Lina Bolaños, 38, and Richard Field, 49, were found dead at a luxury condominium in South Boston on Friday — with their throats slit — by police responding to a call of a man with a gun on Friday night, officials said.

Suspect Bampumim Teixeira, 30, was being treated in a Boston hospital after exchanging gunfire with police and kept his eyes closed for nearly the entire arraignment, nodding only slightly in response to questions. Two not-guilty pleas were entered on his behalf for the two counts of murder he faces.

More on the couple:

Teixeira was ordered held without bail pending trial by a judge on Monday afternoon. His next date in court was set for a probable cause hearing on June 8.

A senior law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation told NBC News that the doctors were allegedly bound and killed when Teixeira slit their throats on Friday evening.

The law enforcement official said that the suspect also wrote a message of retribution on one of the walls of Field and Bolaños' apartment.

The official said that one of the keys of the investigation is how the suspect was able to get in the building given the security systems that were in place, which included a key system to get into the building and access the elevator.

"Right now that's the $64,000 question," the official said.

A prosecutor said at the bedside arraignment that a friend of the two doctors had frantically called police after receiving two texts message describing a gunman in the 11th floor apartment and "a plea for help."

The responding officers used a set of keys they found on the floor outside the apartment to get in, where they found a man dark clothing who exchanged fire with officers, Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney John Pappas said.

The Boston Police Department said in a previous statement the suspect "immediately began firing" after encountering the officers at around 8:38 p.m. The officers shot back, and wounded the suspect, who was taken into custody after the violent struggle and hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.

Teixeira suffered injuries to his left hand, abdomen, and leg, Pappas said Monday afternoon.

The prosecutor said the officers then encountered the bodies of Bolaños and Field, who were both bound and had sustained "obvious trauma."

He added that "just inside the apartment door" and "in a remarkably conspicuous area," the suspect had left a back backpack "filled with jewelry" that presumably belonged to Bolaños.

Suffolk County District Attorney's Office spokesman Jake Wark had said earlier Monday that Teixeira would be facing murder charges.

On Monday, Ward told NBC News that the motive behind the killings and any potential relationship between the victims and suspect remained under investigation.

Boston Police Commissioner William Evans told reporters Friday night that they believed "clearly, the victims here and the individual, the suspect, knew each other," but added that they had not yet discovered a motive.

On Sunday, a police spokeswoman told NBC News that the killings "did not appear random."

Related: Engaged Doctors Found Brutally Slain in Boston Penthouse Apartment

Teixeira had served about nine months out of about a one-year sentence for a larceny conviction when he was recently released, Wark said. He was imprisoned after pleading guilty to two counts of larceny for demanding money from the same bank, once in 2016 and once in 2014, he said.

Suffolk County Sheriff's Department Spokesman Peter Van Delft told NBC News on Monday that Teixeira had been in jail from July 14, 2016, until Sept. 30, 2016.

On that same day, he was sent to the county house of correction, where he served time in prison until April 4.

Bolaños and Field were engaged and both were anesthesiologists.

The chief medical officer at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, where Bolaños worked, said everyone there "really loved her."

"Lina personified the ideal traits of a pediatric anesthesiologist, combining excellent skill with great compassion," Sunil Eappen, who is also chief of anesthesia at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, said Sunday afternoon. "She was warm and caring with both parents and the children she treated, creating a sense of calm even while managing the most stressful of cases."

"It is desperately hard for all of us to fathom that our friend who never failed to brighten our days is no longer with us," he said.

North Shore Pain Management, where Field worked as a doctor, released a statement saying he was known for his "tireless devotion."

"Dr. Field was a guiding vision at North Shore Pain Management and was instrumental in the creation of this practice, in 2010," the company said in the statement, later adding that he "was noted for his tireless devotion to his patients, staff and colleagues."