Commonwealth v. Martin (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-030-14)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us SJC‑10836 COMMONWEALTH vs. CLEVELAND MARTIN. Suffolk. October 11, 2013. ‑ February 26, 2014. Present: Ireland, C.J., Cordy, Gants, Duffly, & Lenk, JJ. Homicide. Felony‑Murder Rule. Robbery. Taxicab. Joint Enterprise. Constitutional Law, Admissions and confessions, Voluntariness of statement, Search and seizure, Assistance of counsel, Result of illegal interrogation. Due Process of Law, Assistance of counsel. Search and Seizure, Expectation of privacy. Evidence, Joint venturer, Admissions and confessions, Cross‑examination, Impeachment of credibility, Prior misconduct, Relevancy and materiality, Result of illegal interrogation. Practice, Criminal, Admissions and confessions, Voluntariness of statement, Motion to suppress, Assistance of counsel, Capital case. Cellular Telephone. Telephone. Witness, Cross‑examination, Impeachment. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on December 21, 2005. Pretrial motions to suppress evidence were heard by Margaret R. Hinkle, J., and Elizabeth B. Donovan, J.; the cases were tried before Regina L. Quinlan, J., and a motion for a new trial, filed on February 3, 2012, was heard by her. Philip G. Cormier for the defendant. Cailin M. Campbell, Assistant District Attorney (Patrick Haggan, Assistant District Attorney, with her) for the Commonwealth. LENK, J. In December, 2008, a Superior Court jury convicted the defendant of murder in the first degree on the theory of felony-murder, with armed robbery as the predicate felony. The defendant’s convictions stem from the stabbing death of Heureur Previlon, a Brookline taxicab driver, whose body was found inside his vehicle in the early morning hours of August 25, 2005. The defendant and a codefendant, Jashawn Robinson, were indicted as joint venturers. Following the allowance of their motions to sever, they were tried separately and Robinson was acquitted. The matter is before us on the defendant’s direct appeal, which was consolidated with his appeal from the denial of his motion for a new trial. The defendant claims that (1) it was error to have denied his pretrial motions to suppress statements made to police on three occasions as well as certain physical evidence gathered as a result of those statements; (2) the judge improperly precluded him from cross-examining Laura Pizarro, the defendant’s former girl friend and a key Commonwealth witness, as to certain false statements she had made accusing a relative of sexual impropriety, which the defendant contends were relevant to show Pizarro’s motive to lie; (3) the […]